2008 EUPHA Conference

The 2008 conference will be organized in Lisbon, Portugal from 6-8 November and the main theme is I-health: innovation and health in Europe. Abstracts can be submitted from 1 February to 1 May.

We are very pleased to combine our annual meeting with the annual meeting of our partner association – ASPHER (Association for Schools of Public Health in the European Region). The 2008 ASPHER conference will be organized from 5-6 November 2008 combined with a specific training and education track during the EUPHA conference. The main theme is Education and research - Education in research for Public health: State of the art and challenges ahead. Abstracts can be submitted from 1 February to 1 May.

The Spanish Association of Public Health and Health Administration (SESPAS) will also have its annual meeting during the pré-conference.
During this period the Portuguese Association for Hospital Development will also have its annual meeting.

Detailed programmes and details for both events will be available shortly.


Several EUPHA sections are already planning pre-conference activities, including:

• Training seminar on measuring patient experiences in health care
• Workshop on social security and health
• Workshop on child safety
• Workshop on Public Mental Health and interpersonal and community violence
• Workshop on the electronic child health record
• Workshop on European training in effective adolescent care and health
• Workshop on migrant health

Further to that, our partner Sanofi-MSD is planning a round table on vaccination issues.
More information on the pre-conference activities can be found on the EUPHA website www.eupha.org. Participation is open for all, an additional fee will be charge

A Knowledge-network society is emerging in Europe and elsewhere. Network societies are about co-operative networks that incorporate information, communication and technological innovation, changing the way people work and live, producing a new and different economy, providing new opportunities for Public Health.

Based in the open innovation’s model, it requires the identification of interstices between different but related clusters, as it happens, for example, in the cases of the bioscience, biotechnology and health clusters. This logic illustrates how links and connections between different organisations and sectors, from senior managers to frontline staff can facilitate innovation in health by enabling the flow of knowledge, resources, risk, pressure, best practice, trust, validity, recognition, refreshment, legitimacy and challenge. Without these links, units or pockets of innovation will exist in isolation, and value will not spread throughout a locality.

In today’s knowledge society and economy, innovation is becoming a critical developmental concept for health, incorporating simultaneously (i) an evolving understanding of health gains, (ii) protective and enabling social interactions, and (iii) economic growth.

In this context health innovation is defined as,

1. creative process, requiring imagination and public/private entrepreneurship
2. that translates knowledge into tangible products, services or procedures
3. resulting in adding value simultaneously to at least three different domains
   • health, as value in itself, as a resource for individual and social development, as an outcome of value adding community and service networks;
   • protective and enabling social interactions, redesigning the public sphere through better literacy, constructive conversations among social actors, and transparent governance;
   • economic growth, trough investing in heath, supportive physical and social environments, heath centered technologies

It should be noted that such a notion of health innovation brings together (i) health and economic development (rather than establishing a hierarchy between “social” and “economic” policies) and (ii) health promotion and health services (reinforcing a public health umbrella concept in health systems thinking).

The 2008 EUPHA Conference, and the European Health Innovation Bank (i-health bank), will promote exchange of ideas and experiences on the subject of “innovation” and “knowledge” as the two central issues for improving the health of the Europeans.