I have just returned from Romania, where an important congress took place. The Global Forum  is an annual international and independent event, a Think Tank dedicated to the Economic, Political and Social issues related to the successful evolution of the Information Society.

Romania has won the competition with US, China and Switzerland to organize this year the 18th edition of the Global Forum.

The event was organized under the High Patronage of the Romanian Presidency. Traian Basescu, President of Romania, attended the forum sessions.

The Forum took place in the Parliament House (the second largest building in the world) and hosted over 250 political leaders, mayors, multinational company leaders, university professors and different association representatives, well-known consulting and law firms.

Among the attendees, representatives of the US Administration, the European Commission, the United Nations Organization, governmental representatives from Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Middle East were present.

This year meeting was dedicated to discussions about the crisis and its effects, measures to stimulate and reshape the global economy, through the means of IT&C.

The session I chaired (session 4 – Innovation and  Sustainable eHealth) had 12 speakers covering governmental issues, European affairs,  telecom, IT vendors, patient representatives, web services, change management consultants and legal advisors.

The speakers were able to present in a short time their achievements:

• we learned the exceptional development  of the Emergency Mobile Units (SMURD) in Romania with telemedicine fully equipped ambulances and interhospital telemedicine and we acknowledged that telemedicine for emergency situations is not a luxury but an economical and cost efficient  solution.

• we admired the patient certification scheme from Sweden – a regional government initiative  aiming at educating and informing patients about chronic diseases, accompanying patients in changing behavior and even certifying their ability to take care of their own health.
• we understood the necessity for cost comparison in the area of over-the-counter drugs with portals such as ComparSanté in France;
• we learned about the local government developments in Asolo area – from Veneto region in Italy. The local health and social services succeeded in creating a citizen portal accessing medical information from the local hospital and building citizen services based on Web 2.0 applications.  

• we discovered new services proposed by mobile operators such as Orange in hospitals in France – see here;
• Finally, we learned about the EU Member states initiatives epSOS and Callioppe as an effort to structure eHealth implementation around Europe and the EC initiatives to support the European implementations in the eHealth area.

In conclusion, the Global Forum 2009 was a very rich experience for all stakeholders of healthcare and eHealth providers - local and regional governments, industry, insurance companies, patients and healthcare  professionals.

Dr Octavian Purcarea

Global Solution Manager

Worldwide  Health team

Microsoft