14 - 16 April 2015, Berlin, Germany.From 14 to 16 April 388 exhibitors from 14 countries (2014: 359/10) showcased the role of IT in the healthcare system and the innovative solutions that systems can provide to help improve safety, efficiency and quality. Covering a display area of 15,000 square metres (2014: 13,500 sqm) across the halls and adjacent conference rooms, conhIT provided opportunities for advanced training, exchanging information and networking. Around 150 events took place at the Congress, the Academy and on numerous display areas. Approximately 7,500 trade visitors (2014: 6,500) from Germany and abroad came to find out the latest information in Berlin.
Dr. Christian Göke, chief executive officer of Messe Berlin GmbH: "conhIT with its tailored concept of an Industrial Fair, Congress, Academy and Networking events once more passed the test. This year’s renewed record exhibitor, visitor and display space figures confirmed that fact. It was also underlined by the outstanding quality of exhibitors’ displays with their many innovative products, the presence of decision-makers, the latest industry topics discussed at the Congress and Academy events as well as the excellent opportunities for establishing business contacts at conhIT. The new third display hall, which was also occupied by exhibitors, as well as the mobile health ZONE were an immediate success and rounded off the products and services of Europe’s leading event for the industry this year."
The accompanying Industrial Fair provided information for visitors on how IT can help improve medical care and nursing care. Key topics at this year's event were mobility, safety and networking. The products and solutions exhibited represented the entire spectrum of healthcare, including treatment support processes, optimum invoicing of services and interactive communications between doctors, institutions and patients.
Interoperability a hotly discussed topic at the Congress
One particular topic which is a permanent subject of debate within health IT circles and which was focused on at this year's conhIT, is the network interoperability of IT systems at all stages of treatment. "In order to ensure the interdisciplinary exchange of patient data, something that the draft of the of eHealth law demands, IT systems require a high standard of interoperability. That is something that in recent years the industry has worked hard to achieve. It has developed solutions that can improve patient care by employing simple forms of data communication. Once again, conhIT 2015 showed that suppliers are one step ahead of events on the ground. Until now the necessary structures have been lacking in order to be able to exploit these systems to the full," said Matthias Meierhofer, chairman of the board of the German Association of Health IT Vendors (bvitg).
Networking, and with it the necessity for system interoperability, was a hotly debated topic at the conhIT Congress. From the user's point of view medical technology and IT systems need to become even more integrated. A further obstacle that needs to be tackled before putting this requirement into practice is partly due to the lack of system interoperability. As a result, there was keen visitor interest in the numerous sessions dealing with various aspects of interoperability at the conhIT Congress 2015.
"At conhIT 2015 the main focus was on mobility, in particular apps for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs. This shows how the healthcare IT industry is making increasingly successful efforts to embrace the needs of patients and citizens. Other challenges in this context such as data protection and IT security represented further key topics at the Congress," said Prof. Paul Schmücker, president of the conhIT Congress.
Other topics debated included ways of optimising treatment processes and structures in order to improve efficiency in health institutions and the question as to which IT strategies will lead to economic success in the future.
The next conhIT will take place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 19 to 21 April 2016.
For further information, please visit:
http://www.conhit.com
About conhIT - Connecting Healthcare IT
conhIT targets decision-makers in IT departments, management, in the medical profession, nursing, doctors, doctors' networks and medical care centres who need to find out about the latest developments in IT and healthcare, meet members of the industry and make use of opportunities for high-level advanced training. As an integrated event, over a period of three days conhIT combines an Industrial Fair, a Congress and Networking Events that are of particular interest to this sector. Launched in 2008 by the German Association of Health IT Vendors (bvitg) as the meeting place for the health IT industry and organised by Messe Berlin, this event was attended by 388 exhibitors in 2015 and has become Europe's leading event for the health IT sector.
conhIT is organised in cooperation with the following industry associations: the German Association of Healthcare IT Vendors (bvitg), the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS), the German Association of Medical Computer Scientists (BVMI). The National Association of Hospital IT Managers (KH-IT) and the Working Group of Directors of Medical Computing Centres at German University Clinics (ALKRZ) have provided contributions to the subject matter.