7th International Invited Conference on the Management of Healthcare and Medical Technology

The Hospital of the Future

Enschede, Netherlands

6-7 June 2011

• ORGANISING COMMITTEE
• CONFERENCE THEME
• GENERAL INFORMATION
• KEY DATES
• PRACTICALITIES
• CONTACT & MORE INFORMATION

Prof. Koos KRABBENDAM
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Prof. Elie GEISLER
Stuart Graduate School of Business, Chicago
USA

Prof. Giuseppe TURCHETTI
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy

• CONFERENCE THEME

The theme of the conference is The diffusion, adoption and implementation of healthcare technologies. Rising healthcare demands, growing healthcare expenditures and expected shortages of medical staff are the main reasons why healthcare providers are increasingly looking for improvements in operations. New medical technologies, such as PACS, EMR, Non Invasive PillCam (colonoscopies), Nanotechnology Diagnostic and Therapeutic technologies, play a fundamental role in improving the quality of healthcare services. However, the introduction of new technologies in healthcare organizations seems to lead to mixed results.. There are many factors which inhibit their application to clinical practice. The role these factors play in the diffusion process include economic, behavioral and organizational determinants. Such a role is extremely important and largely depends on the health care system itself.

Healthcare systems have grown significantly during the latter half of the last century and have undoubtedly contributed to better health delivery for the respective communities. However, their contributions could have been greater if measures were in place for a better diffusion of new medical technologies. Research has shown that due to the variances in healthcare systems of, for example, the EU member States and the USA there are differences in the uptake, evaluation and diffusion of new technologies.

The differences in health care systems in the world are a result of differences in ethics, clinical routines and, in particular, financial and economic rules and reimbursement mechanisms. This research conference aims to compare and understand a number of the different systems as they are applied in different countries and to analyze the factors favoring the appropriate, safe and rapid diffusion to clinical use of new clinical technologies. More specifically, the objectives of the research conference are:

1. To describe characteristics of the selected countries in terms of:
   a. ethics and principles beyond health systems and the normative constraints;
   b. clinical routines and the level of health care quality;
   c. financial systems and reimbursement mechanisms for health care (in general) and for new medical technologies (in particular);
   d. economic, social, demographic characteristics and the diffusion of technological and human health capital within the selected countries;
2. To define the most important variables (ethics, clinical procedures and economic-financial elements) that impact on the diffusion of new medical technologies.
3. To develop strategies for ethics, clinical and financing systems able to increase technology diffusion and healthcare quality.

• GENERAL INFORMATION

Who will be invited?
We invite researchers in the general area of health care management and in the more specific area of medical technology. The conference also targets practitioners from industry and health care providers who are involved in the introduction of new medical technologies. Especially we will benefit from the discussion between these three groups of participants.

Structure of the conference
We will limit the number of participants to 50 people which allow us to have mainly plenary sessions with a few subgroup discussions. The conference coordinators will send invitations to 20 world-renown experts. The remainder 30 will be selected from scholars and practitioners who will respond to this Call for Participation. The invited experts will discuss the different health care systems, present the state of the art of research in the field, and have brainstorm sessions on pre-defined research questions.

Conference moderators
The conference will be organised and moderated by:
Prof. Elie Geisler, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA
Prof. Koos Krabbendam, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Prof. Giuseppe Turchetti, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy

Conference deliverables
The conference will result in an edited book of proceedings and a special issue of the International Journal of Health Care Technology and Management. The expected outputs from the conference are therefore a joint research program in the field among the scholars and practitioners, and subsequently joint scientific publications.

How to get an invitation
If you are interested in participating in the conference and you would like to be invited, please send an electronic mail to the HCTM secretariat, with your intention to participate, a short c.v., and your potential contributions to the conference.

• KEY DATES

• PRACTICALITIES

Conference location
The conference is hosted by the faculty of Management and Governance, University of Twente, The Netherlands. Twente is a region located in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the border with Germany. It has an excellent railway connection with Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The university is easily accessible by road through the A1/A35 Motorway.

Participation fee
The conference fee is not exactly known yet, it will be announced as soon as possible. The fee will cover the cost of coffees/teas/refreshments, lunches and a gala dinner.

Accommodations
Rooms can be booked in one of the following hotels.
Hotel De Broeierd****, about 500 meters from the university campus.
Hotel De Drienerburght*** at the university campus.

More details on will follow nearer the event.

• CONTACT & MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please contact the HCTM secretariat.