Tag: Gastein Forum

  • A Better Future for Europe

    EUSJA has 8 grants for its members to attend European Health Forum Gastein and to meet outstanding scientists and policy makers. It is a wonderful place for journalists who cover medicine and life sciences. This year will be the anniversary: the 20-th EHFG will be organized in Bad Gastein from 4 to 6 October with the main topic “Health in All Politics – a better future for Europe”. See the full programme to https://www.ehfg.org/.

    EUSJA grant include 4 night accommodation, meal and transfers, also the conference fees. Journalists must take care of their travel expenses. The applications (name, media, country, association, e-mail, mobile) must be sent via national association by August 31.

     Captoon: EHFG

  • Demographics, Diversity and Health

    EU-Fahne

    EUSJA has 7 travel grants for its members to attend the prestigious European Health Gastein Forum that takes place Bad Hofgastein, Austria from 28 to 30 September 2016. This year the main topics of this outstanding meeting will be demographics, diversity and health. Leading scientists, experts from academia, NGOs, business and industry, decision makers in health policy will be present to share new ideas and use the EHFG as a platform for the exchange of experiences and opinions at the international level. See the preliminary program to http://www.ehfg.org/1210.html

    Travel grants for EUSJA members include conference fees, accommodation up to 4 nights, meal, transfers from and to Salzburg airport. The first press conference is expected in the morning of September 28, thus the arrival day is September 27. The applications (name, association, media, e-mail, mobile) should be sent via national associations by July 15. The announcement how to proceed and the rules of the applications were sent to EUSJA national associations. Please contact your national delegate.

     

     

     

  • 10 things you should know about EU health politics

    10 things you should know about EU health politics

    Helsinki, 16 October – This is a list based on Bad Gastein Health Policy Forum during the first week of October. It is not evidence-based. It is as subjective as its writer. But since doing lists is now fashionable, I will go mainstream. And what would you do without a hashtag nowadays? #EHFG2014

    1. There is evidence-base for health policies. You should follow different expert groups that make policy recommendations. There is just recently nominated Cancer Expert Group. EU is unbelievably open about its scientific committees that usually work to form a basis for directives, http://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/index_en.htm – they have even daily RSS-feeds. Look for instance Schenir – the committee deals with emerging or newly-identified health and environmental risks. Check the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies http://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/partners/observatory and its Eurohealth magazine online.

    2. Be critical. You should follow the money. European Union has stakeholders. Usually it means industry, lobbying groups and obscure think thanks. Be suspicious, read Corporate Europe Observatory http://corporateeurope.org/.

    3. Ebola tests professional ethics. News may create panic. Science journalists know better. It is a question of risk assessment and international development policies. In EU more people will die of alcohol, obesity and tobacco – but these old scares are not as exotic as the new ones. Read Wolfgang Goede´s excellent analysis from Bad Gastein here: https://www.eusja.org/no-silver-bullet-vs-ebolaeurope-safetrade-not-aid/

    4. Undocumented immigrants. The development gap is inside the European Union. Health professionals know the problem but journalists should make more noise. Did you know that tuberculosis is coming back and in drug-resistant form? Did you know that many immigrants lack basic health care? Did you forget that you are an idealist and want a better world? This is one organisation you might want to follow: http://picum.org/en, Health Forum has a nice press release on its pages http://www.ehfg.org/1142.html

    5. Cross-border directive. Should it work already? Nobody is sure. If you make a story, you should test it yourself. Do not believe what they say. It is a headache for everyone in the multi-language Union. Ever tried to explain to your doctor in France, Spain, Finland or Lithuania what is wrong with you? Try. It is hard. The official term is mobility of patients. When you see health as another industry, then customers should have the right to choose. But is health care sector just another industry? No. It employs a lot of people. Are patients just another group of customers? No.

    6. Health Commissioner to be: Vytenis Andriukaitis from Lithuania. He will start his work on November 1st if everything goes as it should. If you interview him and he says his principles: promotion, prevention and protection – do not make a headline from this. He said it in Bad Gastein at least three times.

    7. Patient safety. The biggest health threat to European citizens: their own unhealthy lifestyles. But you should not underestimate the power of infections. Italians are now holding EU presidency and taking a closer perspective to this. Around 8-10% of patients hospitilised suffer from lacks in patient safety – this means 4,1 million patients getting infections linked with health care and of which 37 000 will die. This is scarier than ebola.

    8. Literacy to eHealth, mHealth. We would love to be digital. We know our kids will be. We will need to understand health and health science better. This is called health literacy. In the future we will need digital health literacy. EU is working on it. When researched in 8 EU countries, around half of the population had limited health literacy. What is health literacy? It is the capacity to make sound health decisions in the context of everyday life.

    9, Diplomacy of health. Did you know that the World Health Organization and the European Union work together and even understand each other well. Times have changed, testified several experts in Bad Gastein in a session led by Ilona Kickbush from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Sylvain Giraud, @GiraudSylvain Head of Unit from EU tweeted: “EU member states speaking with one voice at WHO. Key role for EU Geneva delegation.” If interested in health politics, follow Kickbush @IlonaKickbusch and EPHA´s Emma Woodford @EmmaHoeilaart on Twitter.

    10. Austerity. Europe is aging and its citizens need more health care and specialised services. This is why there is a pressure to budgets and need for austerity measures. Scott L. Greer @scottlgreer from University of Michigan was very critical about austerity policy and noted that taking a look into smoking rates and prevention could save more money. The commission has but up a mechanism which analyses health care expenditure in EU member countries. http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/making-it-happen/index_en.htm

     

  • Creating a better future for health in Europe

    Creating a better future for health in Europe

    Gastein forum.2jpg

    Like the last year EUSJA journalists were invited to attend the European Health Forum Gastein to be held in a remarkable place Bad Hofgastein in Austria (October 2 – 4). EUSJA members once again are getting a wonderful opportunity to participate to the most important health policy event in European Union and watch very interesting sessions and discussions of the politicians, scientists, policymakers. Moreover, EUSJA was offered a possibility to organize an informal session the days of the Forum and present a journalistic view of the health policy in Europe. The idea of such a kind session was discussed last year during the meeting of EUSJA journalists with newly elected President of the European Health Forum Gastein Dr Helmut Brand.
    The motto of this year meeting is “Creating a better future for health in Europe”. First announcement of the programme is to EHFG we page:

    http://www.ehfg.org/fileadmin/ehfg/Programm/2013/EHFG_2013_1st_Programme_Announcement.pdf

    EUSJA has 10 invitations. The organizers will provide the accommodation for the full conference period (October 2 – 4) with respect to travel arrangements (starting from October 1). The organizers will cover also the conference fees for invited journalists and offer the meal. Journalists must take care for their traveling. The number of press conferences will be organized during the conference, the interviews with scientists and politicians will be organized upon the request of journalists. The applications must be sent as usual only via national associations: name, affiliation with media, e-mail, mobile. The deadline for the applications is July 14.