DIGITALEUROPE launches its Executive Council For Health

To bridge the gap between business and policy expertise and advance the digital transformation of the health industry, DIGITALEUROPE has launched its new Executive Council for Health. The Council – comprising 18 senior executives from leading healthcare and technology companies, all DIGITALEUROPE members – convened today for its inaugural meeting to discuss the role of digital in addressing urgent healthcare challenges and the roadmap for the European Health Data Space.

Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, said:

“We are proud to launch this Executive Council – the first of its kind – that will bring much-needed industry expertise and concrete success stories to help shape Europe’s health policy debate.

Our healthcare systems – and with them health professionals and patients everywhere in Europe – have been strained by over a year of pandemic. We cannot wait for the next health crisis to urgently upgrade our infrastructure, better use health data, and develop life-saving treatments and devices more quickly and efficiently thanks to digital technologies.

This will require a coordinated, harmonised approach to collecting and sharing health data among Member States through a Common European Health Data Space, as well as simpler rules that will allow innovation to flourish and companies big and small to grow.”

During its first meeting, chaired by DIGITALEUROPE’s Director-General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl and with the participation of Kim Jørgensen, Head of Cabinet to European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, the Council agreed on the follow priorities for its workplan:

The upcoming legislative proposal of the European Health Data Space;

Integration of artificial intelligence and data analysis in healthcare and related issues of cybersecurity, wearable devices, precision medicine, digital twins and other emerging technologies;

Increasing access to emerging technologies and to funding, especially for smaller companies.

About the Executive Council for Health

Following DIGITALEUROPE’s recent growth in digital health – with members such as Roche, Eli Lilly, GSK and ResMed joining in the last year alone – and the success of the Digital Manufacturing Executive Council, the newly established Council for Health will draw on its expertise to share concrete examples and actionable plans with policymakers, in order to advance the digital transformation of the EU’s healthcare systems.

The Council’s membership reflects the diversity of the European and global health tech sector, including large pharmaceutical companies, providers of medical devices and insurance services, as well as leading businesses in cloud, software, hardware, and artificial intelligence.

The Council also includes three fast-growing healthcare start-ups: Climedo (Germany), Corti AI (Denmark) and Oncompass Medicine (Hungary) – the last two respectively 2020 and 2021 winner of DIGITALEUROPE’s Future Unicorn Award –, whose presence will help define the challenges facing European SMEs in the digital health sector.

Members of DIGITALEUROPE's Executive Council for Health

Francesco Buonarroti (Chair)

Vice-President Head of Technology Innovative Medicines EMEA, Johnson & Johnson
Elena Bonfiglioli (Vice-Chair)

Global Business Lead, WW GM Healthcare Pharma and Life Sciences, Microsoft
Katrin Pucknat (Vice-Chair)

Chief Marketing Officer, ResMed
Lisa Banks (Vice-Chair)

Vice President & Global Head of Digital Health and Innovation, GSK
Padraic Ward (Vice-Chair)

Head of Pharma International, Roche
Saskia Steinacker (Vice-Chair)

Senior Vice President, Strategy & Digital Transformation, Bayer
Andreas Cleve

Chief Executive Officer, Corti AI (member of IT-Branchen)
Bernd Ohnesorge

President EMEA, Siemens Healthineers
Boris Bogdan

Lead Healthcare and Life Sciences EMEA, Amazon Web Services
Claire Biot

Vice President, Life Sciences Industry, 3DS Dassault Systèmes
Michael Byczkowski

Global Vice President, Head of Healthcare Industry, SAP
Emmanuel Canes

Healthcare Field Director EMEA, Dell
István Peták

Chief Executive Officer, Oncompass Medicine (member of IVSZ)
Jens Koegler

Healthcare Industry Director EMEA, VMware
Olga Mironenko Stampfer

Vice President International Relations, UnitedHealth Group
Paul Watson

Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Hitachi
Sybo Dijkstra

Head of Data Strategy and AI & Standardization Lead, Philips
Veronika Schweighart

Chief Operations Officer, Climedo
Jan Ising

Managing Director, Lead Life Sciences EMEA, Accenture

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