The European Health Management Conference 2027 is co-hosted by the Osakidetza – Basque Health Service and BIOEF – Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research, under the auspices of the Ministry for Health of the Basque Government
The EHMC 2027 theme is 'Health management in an era of transformation'
Health systems are undergoing profound transformation. Technological advances, workforce pressures, demographic change, including ageing and migration, evolving models of care and financial constraints are changing how healthcare is organised, delivered and managed. The health workforce itself is also changing, with evolving expectations of work, professional roles and organisational life.
The challenge for health management is no longer simply to prepare health systems for change, but to manage transformation while it is taking place — redesigning services while continuing to deliver care, integrating new technologies into practice, adapting roles, skills and ways of working, engaging and supporting people through change, and making difficult choices about priorities and resources.
Transformation does not automatically lead to better healthcare. EHMC 2027 will explore what it takes to manage transformation well: how policy, evidence and innovation can be translated into operational reality; how people and organisations can be engaged and supported through transition; and how change can be implemented and sustained in ways that improve health outcomes, working conditions, access, quality, efficiency and resilience.
“I am pleased to invite health leaders, managers and researchers from across Europe and beyond to join us for the 32d European Health Management Conference in Bilbao. This year’s theme reflects the transformation health systems are going through and the challenges this brings for those managing them." - Prof Federica Morandi, President of the European Health Management Association.
Health management in an era of transformation
Tracks
Governance is the framework through which health systems and organisations set and oversee clear strategic goals to ensure the quality and safety of patient care, performance of services, as well as compliance with laws, regulations, and ethical responsibilities. Effective governance is essential to achieve objectives, drive improvement, and deliver the valued outcomes for citizens and patients. Governance is complex and evolving, and a universal common framework or simple concept of health systems governance does not yet exist.
Leadership is a key principle of governance and must be embedded within governance systems to ensure that systems and organisations are led to accomplish their objectives and meet their strategic goals.
Social responsibility is an ethical framework that underlines how the choices of individuals may affect the whole society. Applied to health management, social responsibility is strictly interlinked with the concepts of resilience and sustainability. Health professionals, health managers, and health systems should be accountable for their behaviours toward society.
This track would include abstracts that:
- analyse leadership theories, styles, approaches, knowledge, and skills required to meet the needs of health systems
- transfer theoretical perspectives to shape the development of a strategic focus
- focus on performance management, quality assurance, and patient safety
- are forward looking and anticipate future trends in health management and health systems
- explore the concepts of clinical and business governance
- discuss legal aspects and ethics of health services and systems
- evaluate the factors that impact the role of leaders within health and social care
- discuss ethical theories and aspects of health professionals, health managers, and health systems’ responsibility towards the society
- present best practices of responsible governance and leadership in health management.
The transition towards person-centred care requires health care systems to be integrated. This track focuses on the operations of organisations and systems. It pays attention to the efforts involved in the planning, organising, staffing, monitoring, directing, and decision-making processes of health services and systems to ensure the effective, efficient, and equitable use of resources.
The abstracts to be considered within this track include, but are not limited to those that:
- share insights from evidence-based research that translate management knowledge into practice contribute to better practice by sharing scalable and innovative models/solutions or improved processes
- identify key lessons based on rigorous analysis of existing practices and models
- provide case studies focusing on implementation of management models.
Health systems rely on their workforce. This track focuses on how human resources are managed to support the delivery of health services. This includes challenges relating to optimal planning, personnel shortages, the post-COVID ‘great resignation’, remunerations and incentives, and competence building.
Against this background, this track will include abstracts that:
- propose frameworks to measure the efficiency of workforce management models
- adopt quantitative approaches to compare transferrable management best practices as emerged in response to the ongoing European major challenges
- include the workforce perspective before and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This track examines business planning and refers to how resources are raised, pooled, allocated or spent to ensure that people have access to health services of good quality without financial hardship. This includes issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behaviour in the production and consumption of health and healthcare.
This track would include abstracts that:
- articulate the drivers of spending and the factors impacting total spending and value
- focus on the financial and economic concepts of health management, such as payment systems and models, budget modelling, investment decisions, health spending/costs
- address challenges in economic evaluation and decision models by highlighting best practices
- present the financial challenges and solutions to the current and future needs, such as the use of technology
- support in setting priorities in national, regional, or organisational contexts towards the best use of resources.
Beyond organisations, policy decisions made at the local, regional, national, and European level have an important impact on health systems, care, and practitioners. Policy mechanisms (e.g., regulation, financial, quality, and technical) can incentivise or hinder the adoption of innovative solutions to improve health outcomes. This track focuses on the development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of policies and regulations affecting health management at the organisational, local, regional, national, and European levels.
Abstracts submitted within this track would include those that:
- analyse relevant policy aspects of challenges in health management
- provide insight on public health challenges, paradigm shifts and health reforms
- share evidence and information on policy issues and possible solutions
- link health management and public health policies with practice
- discuss the involvement and impact of national policymakers, the European Union, as well as internal organisations on health systems.
Topics
People-centred systems
Patient-centricity has been a key topic within health systems, giving way to bringing in patients in the decision-making, planning, development, and monitoring of their care. Moving beyond patients and their conditions within the healthcare setting, people-centredness extends the concept to individuals, families, communities, and society and focus on population empowerment, as well as social services and broader health determinants.
This topic includes different models and processes to ensure that people are the priority when discussing value, developing new technologies, and analysing integrated care needs. Some questions to be answered are how to manage the paradigm shift to people-centred care and balance evidence-based healthcare management and patient preferences.
Healthcare access, delivery, and outcomes
Many subgroups of the population face inequalities and considerable barriers that impede access to healthcare resources and services and affect their health and wellbeing. There is a need for health systems to address the social determinants of health and disparities.
How can health systems ensure equitable access to health services, and achieve the delivery of better quality of care and better health outcomes? What are the new developments in models of healthcare delivery?
Sustainable and resilient health systems
To be sustainable European health systems need to adopt a wide understanding of sustainability considering economic, environmental, and social aspects. Sustainable health systems ensure the provision of appropriate and adequate care to patients, the affordability for payers (whether it is patients, families, employers, or governments), the adaptability to change, as well as the lowering of the negative impact of health systems on the environment. Health systems’ sustainability is interlinked with their resilience, namely their capacity to prepare for shocks, respond, minimise the impact, and embed lessons learned.
How can health systems participate towards achieving the sustainable development goals? Which strategies, processes, solutions can health systems and managers implement to ensure the sustainability of health systems? Including their resilience; emergency or pandemic preparedness; as well as health crisis management and prevention.
Health technology and digital transformation
Over the past years, the use of digital technologies in healthcare has increased. The digital transformation of health systems has been a priority topic for European health systems. The pandemic moved health technology and digital transformation even higher on European policy agendas, as proved by the election of the European Health Data Space as one of the key pillars of the European Health Union. One of the lessons learnt through the increased adoption of digital innovation is that although technology is essential, it is people that drive change.
Digital tools should connect and serve patients and professionals without losing sight of the social and human element of medicine. How can health systems ensure the effective adoption of digital innovation such as Artificial Intelligence and robotics? What is the impact of new technologies on population health and expenses? How can health systems build trust in digital innovation?
Workforce of the future
Future health systems depend on people and investing in the future of health systems means to invest in the health workforce of the future. As societal and technical evolution occur, the health workforce must rapidly change and adapt to safeguard patient and their wellbeing, as well as their professional existence. Healthcare is provided by people to people but sometimes healthcare workers are left with the hopeless feeling that they are ‘working together alone.
What are the needs of the health workforce? What are the key areas to invest in to support the health workforce? How will their upskilling, reskilling, and skill-mixing needs change? How do we address challenges relating to shortage and mobility of professionals? How can health managers support professional collaborations and relationships?
What can you expect?
Excellence
Be part of the preeminent European conference on health management and contribute to achieving excellence in health management.
Programme
An engaging conference that combines scientific presentations, keynotes, workshops and interactive discussions.
Networking
Networking opportunities with a variety of stakeholders to identify, discuss and address current and future needs of health management in Europe and worldwide.
Community
500+ representatives of the healthcare ecosystem including academia, research, health managers, healthcare professionals, decision- and policy-makers.
Showcase
The opportunity to showcase your work and research, highlighting best practices and sharing innovative ideas on health management with leading experts in the field.
Speakers
3
Days
+160
Presentations
+500
Attendees
+440
Abstract Submissions
+150
Speakers
Testimonials
"I’ve attended the EHM Conference 14 times, and it’s always exciting! What I value most are the people and the conversations that take place, both on stage and in the corridors, during coffee breaks, the welcome reception, and the social dinner. These moments of exchange are just as valuable as what happens during the sessions."
Dr Marius Ungureanu, MD
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Public Health, Babeș-Bolyai University; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Romania
"I'm always delighted to be back at the EHM conference! What really strikes me is how many younger people there are, which means that we've got hope for the future of health management in Europe, with academics, researchers, and young people working in health services across Europe and even beyond."
Prof Naomi Chambers
Professor of Health Management, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
"The EHM Conference offers two opportunities. It’s always good to be exposed to new research, and it’s also valuable to hear from healthcare providers and healthcare managers, who bring a different perspective from the policymakers we normally work with."
Dr Sarah Thomson
Senior Health Financing Specialist, WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing, Spain
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Getting to the Event
Bilbao, Spain.
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