Conference Matters 144

INTERVIEW

The mother must log in to as many patient systems as there are healthcare providers

treating her son'

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONFERENCES

and the ICT&health World Conference, which usually takes place in January. We focus on it because our target groups are also at these events.” How do you participate? “Our communication strategy determines how we are in contact with our target groups and stakeholders. We always look at who from our organisation can best act as a speaker; that depends very much on who the target group is. One time our director is the keynote speaker, and the next time, a policy-related colleague who knows a lot about a subject. At big events we often do both, with a main speaker on the main stage and more policy-­ related colleagues in the breakout session.”

Vivienne Scheltema is the coordinator of the Communications Team at the Information Policy Directorate of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). Together with her team, she is responsible for participating in and organising conferences. Her team supports CIO Bianca Rouwenhorst and advises her on her participation in conferences. Conference Matters spoke to Rouwenhorst about the importance of conferences as a means of communication. Do you use conferences to spread the Ministry’s message? “Yes, it’s an important part of our communi cation approach. Based on our task to achieve proper data exchange and data availability in healthcare, we work with the Information Policy department at many major events, such as the Zorg&ict event of Koninklijke Jaarbeurs in April

involved, such as healthcare providers, technology companies, governments, and patient organisations? “Yes, evaluations show that our participation in these conferences are seen as positive. However, it’s true that these conference take place alongside many other forms of consul tation and cooperation. To be fair, that’s where the real exchange takes place. There is too little time for that at the events, although we always organise in-depth sessions at the events.”

How important is it to consult internationally?

“Many of the rules and legislation are European, such as European Health Data Space (EHDS). Many of the guidelines and standards that data exchange must comply with are international, so here as well, there’s a lot of consultation and cooperation between many countries.”

Is there enough sharing at these conferences between the various parties

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