HIMSS22 Europe: ‘We need to develop eco-friendly Digital Health’

The speakers during the session were: Ronald Lavater, chief executive officer (CEO), committee member, International Hospital Federation, The Geneva Centre of Healthcare Leadership for Sustainability, Switzerland;  Nancy Jennings, health advisor and AMR lead for the UK Mission to the EU in Brussels, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Belgium; Timo Tyrväinen, chief economist, Climate Leadership Coalition, Finland; Dr Brigitte Seroussi, director in charge of digital health ethics, DNS, French Ministry of Solidarity and Health, France; Isabelle Kumar, former Euronews anchor, carer, disability rights campaigner, president of Autisme, Ambition, Avenir, France He outlined some of the ways in which global health is impacted by climate change including weather-related disasters, food and water scarcity, and rising sea levels which lead to mass migration. “We know all the benefits of digital health tools and services in terms of patient safety, care quality and cost reduction,” said Dr Seroussi. “We didn’t think about climate change,” continued Lavater. “We may have had a recycling programme or solar panels on the roof, but the real look at how hospitals impact climate change, and are contributing to the problem, wasn’t part of the training either at school or on the job.” “Hospitals are contributing to climate change,” Lavater said. “At IHF we recognise that climate change is a major item and moving up on the agenda for hospital administrators, so we brought together a key team and formed Geneva Sustainability Centre.” Nancy Jennings, health advisor and AMR lead for the UK Mission to the EU, said that the issues of AMR and climate change were linked and needed to be treated with a similar approach.