The Future of Healthcare in Europe

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The Future of Healthcare in Europe

This high-level one-day conference was convened by the UCL European Institute and UCL Grand Challenges in cooperation with the Finnish Institute in London.

Resources from the conference and the booklet and thought-pieces commissioned specifically for the conference are available below.

The event brought together leading academic experts, healthcare professionals, consultants and public policy officials to discuss the sector’s key challenges, identify existing good practices and develop concrete policy recommendations.

European governments face a growing number of major health challenges, which are putting unprecedented pressures on public health systems. These include those posed by an ageing population, such as the increasing complexity of diseases and health care needs; the rise of mental health problems across age groups and social strata; and the effects of chronic diseases fuelled by environmental and socioeconomic factors as well as increasingly by lifestyle.

Furthermore, healthcare provision confronts significant structural challenges in balancing access for high-quality care whilst meeting increasing patient expectations.The distributive ethic of European healthcare is likely to be increasingly tested as demands on healthcare provision increase and cost pressures intensify.

Bringing together expertise from academia, government, public policy institutes, think-tanks and third sector from across Europe, the conference sought to define the major health challenges that Europe faces and explore the ways in which different European countries are responding to these to find potential solutions. The conference also considered the extent to which there might be economic benefit from pan-European action on healthcare, and how the impact of prevention in healthcare can be measured. By stimulating knowledge exchange across sectors in the UK and the EU, the conference aims to increase research, governmental, and non-governmental co-operation on this vital issue.

The conference featured over 25 speakers, with keynote addresses from Professor Sir Michael Marmot (UCL Epidemiology and Public Health and Chair of WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health) and Michael Hübel (Head of Health Determinants Unit, DG Health & Consumers, European Commission). Other speakers included Dr Jennifer Dixon (The Nuffield Trust), Professor Peter Littlejohns (National Institute for Heath and Clinical Excellence, NICE) and Dr Marina Erhola (National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland).