Discover the #EHMA2022 tracks and topics

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) described health as being:

‘…created and lived by people within the settings of their everyday life; where they learn, work, play and love. Health is created by caring for oneself and others, by being able to take decisions and have control over one’s life circumstances, and by ensuring that the society one lives in creates conditions that allow the attainment of health by all its members.’

With this vision of health in mind, EHMA considers that health management is practised from an individual to a population level, and embraces a holistic vision of health, in which health is impacted by personal, situational, societal, and environmental determinants. Health management includes and goes beyond healthcare management, as it also happens outside of care facilities. Health management encompasses the entire health ecosystem, including patient organisations, health services management representatives, policymakers, public health experts, researchers, and representatives from the health insurance sector, social services, and pharmaceutical industries.

Thus, the EHMA 2022 conference is structured around four tracks that reflect that holistic practice of health management and frame the lenses through which contemporary topics will be analysed and discussed at the conference. The tracks are:

1. Governance and Leadership – This track includes abstracts that are creating evidence and best practices on setting and overseeing strategic goals, as well leading successful health organisations and systems.

2. Management, Operations and Practice – This track focuses on the operations of organisations and systems. It pays attention to evidence in the planning, organising, staffing, monitoring, directing, and decision-making processes of health services and systems to ensure the effective, efficient, and equitable use of resources.

3. Finance and Economics – This track examines business planning and refers to how resources are raised, pooled, allocated or spent to ensure that people have access to health services of good quality without financial hardship. This includes abstracts related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behaviours in the production and consumption of health and healthcare.

4. Policy and Regulations – This track focuses on the development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of policies/regulations affecting health management at the organisational, local, regional, national, and European levels.

As health systems are analysing their COVID-19 response to implement changes and improve their preparedness for future challenges, several lessons have already emerged. One important takeaway of the pandemic is that effective policies and political leadership were key for a resilient response to a pandemic. It is also apparent that health interventions were easier to establish in countries with stronger public health and primary care systems with strong community linkages. Other lessons learnt include that Universal Health Coverage and primary care are vital components of health systems; that trust is necessary to support measures within and between health ecosystems, and that future health systems depend on people. Investing in the future of health systems is thus an investment in people and in the workforce of the future.

To increase the resilience and readiness of their health systems, managers must assess challenges and implement innovative solutions from the individual to the systems level. The EHMA 2022 Annual Conference will explore how health services can effectively be managed to ensure a sustainable future. It will highlight strong leadership as a key enabler for transformation towards resilient health systems and will underline the importance of involving every level of the health ecosystem, namely from people to systems.

Leading experts will dive into five contemporary health management topics, analysed through the lenses of four tracks. As reflected in the conference title, a particular focus will be placed on people, as they form the backbone of our health system. The topic People-centred systems will explore how to include people – not only as patients – when discussing value, developing new technologies, and analysing integrated care needs. The second topic Managing the digital transformation will look at how we can effectively implement digital solutions in health, while simultaneously building trust in new technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of investing in the health workforce and safeguarding their wellbeing. Ways to support the health workforce will thus be discussed in the third topic Workforce of the future. The fourth topic, Shaping sustainable systems will investigate what strategies, processes, and solutions health managers can implement to ensure the sustainability of health systems. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated already-existing inequalities in healthcare access and outcomes. The topic Improving healthcare access, delivery, and outcomes will therefore look at how health disparities can be addressed to deliver better quality of care and better health outcomes.

The tracks and topics were identified following an extensive consultation process with the EHMA members, the Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors.

Have you carried out research that would be relevant to one (or more) of these tracks? Would you be interested in sharing your results with the health management community? Then don’t forget to submit your abstract before Friday, 4 March at 17:00 CET.