Almost 100 experts are meeting in Seitenstetten today to work together to develop strategies for upcoming challenges in the healthcare system.
Seitenstetten (OTS) – In a new format, pioneers and fellow thinkers from the Austrian healthcare system, politics, industry and interest groups will exchange ideas about the most important health issues of the future on today’s “Thinkers’ Day” in Seitenstetten (Lower Austria). “We have a health system that works well, but it also places extreme demands on us and pushes us to our limits. “Therefore, there is an urgent need for fellow and forward-thinkers who can bring in new solutions,” agreed Anton Kasser, member of the Lower Austrian state parliament, and Johann Spreitzer, mayor of Seitenstetten, on the occasion of the opening and were pleased about the numerous stakeholders and experts who have gathered in Seitenstetten.
Structural reforms urgently needed
“We have put a lot of money into health care reform, but we see that money alone cannot solve all the challenges,” says Oliver Brosch, general secretary of the PRAEVENIRE association, and calls for greater attention to structural reforms. The morning will focus on the topics of prevention, the reimbursement process and the evaluation board for innovative and high-priced therapies. Peter McDonald, President of the Sport Union, calls for clear goals for health policy in his keynote speech: “Even if this is unpopular, we still need measurable variables to know whether we are achieving something with the measures.” From the expert’s point of view, prevention is a must contribute to ensuring that the population only uses the supply options at a later point in time and thus takes pressure off the system. Motivation to exercise more and screening programs are two key keys to this.
Questions of economic efficiency challenge medicine
Mag. Alexander Hayn, Chairman of the Federal Committee of the Photo, Optics and Medical Devices Trade of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of AUSTROMED, the interest group for medical device companies in Austria, focuses his input on the question of how innovation-promoting or anti-innovation the reimbursement of medicines and… Medical devices is: “Social insurance companies do not have an easy task when solidarity, cost-effectiveness, transparency and quality assurance have to be reconciled with innovative, needs-based and appropriate care.” From the expert’s point of view, the system of cost reimbursement is currently partially acting as a brake on innovation. European regulations are also making it increasingly difficult for medical device companies to bring innovations to patients.
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Fuchs, LL.M. from the Institute for Austrian and European Public Law at the WU Vienna provides the basis for further discussion about the new nationwide evaluation board for pharmaceuticals. “The composition, the tasks and the competencies still leave a number of questions unanswered that urgently need to be answered,” says Fuchs.
Following the keynote speeches, the participants discuss the aforementioned topics in workshops and work out those problems that urgently require a solution through health policy.
Where does the supply go?
Forms of care of the future – from digital to outpatient to inpatient – are the focus of the afternoon. High-ranking experts are at the beginning of the discussions with their impulses: Dr. Alexander Biach, Deputy Director of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Michael Binder, Medical Director of the Vienna Health Association, DI Dr. Verena Ossmann, head of the health technology platform at the Lower Austrian business agency ecoplus, and Dr. Franz Leisch from the PRAEVENIRE association. The thinkers’ day concludes with a summary of all the areas of action that are intended to ensure sustainable healthcare for the years 2024 and 2025.
PREVENT ÜBER
The non-profit association PRAEVENIRE – Society for the Optimization of Solidarity Health Care offers an independent platform with numerous events, such as the Thinkers’ Day in Seitenstetten, the Health Days in Eisenstadt, the Health Talks in Alpbach or summit talks in Vienna and other places in Austria, to discuss important health policy issues and To discuss questions about care and to develop proposed solutions and recommendations for action in the form of a yearbook for politicians and decision-makers in the healthcare sector. The patients are always the focus of all considerations.
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