The day’s last session was opened by the chair Giampaolo Armellin, the Head of Research Unit CRG. The session covered the very interesting and acute topic of Connected and Personalized Health in the Internet Age. The topic is universal and is important even for people not involved in the research on the topic itself, as the Internet is inevitably revolutionizing the science of medicine and the way the systems of medicine work in our everyday lives. Technology is meant improve the health care system, not to only simplify it and reduce the distance.

Carmelo Battaglia, the Sales Director of SMEs Customers at InfoCert, a company with 3 offices, 200 employees, 41 million EUR revenue in 2014, started the session by talking about the importance of our digital information’s safety. Everyone have to make sure his or her digital information is properly owned, stored and made accessible and available only to the allowed users and for allowed purposes. Everyone’s digital identity should remain safe at all times.

Kim Westerlund, the Chief Development Officer at Nixu, continued the topic of the importance of cybersecurity and data protection in the spheres of healthcare and medicine. The healthcare environment is being rapidly changed by technology and the expanding possibilities to analyse and access the huge amounts of biometric, genetic and other personal data, which is being stored digitally.This personal data along with other medical records can be extremely valuable to the cyber criminals, which no longer aim to steal only the credit card & bank account-related records and data, as one might think, and it’s very important to take measures to make sure this data won’t get hacked and stolen. We need to know and understand which actions do we have to take to protect our privacy and the privacy of our personal data. The only way to make it clear and accessible to everyone is to make it private by design. According to Kim, there are 7 foundational principles of privacy-by-design:

• Proactive not reactive – Preventative not remedial
• Privacy as default setting
• Privacy embedded into design
• Full functionality – positive-sum, not zero-sum
• End-to-End security – full lifecycle protection
• Visibility and transparency – keep it open to everyone
• Respect for user privacy – keep it user-centric

Giuseppe Grassi, the Director of Cardiology Division at ULSS 12 in Veneziana, Italy, continued the session by elaborating on the concept of innovating the processes of interaction between the doctors and the patients by automation and by the usage of the dedicated software. For instance, the hospital Mr. Guiseppe Grassi works at, is using the dedicated software for prescriptions of medicine, which helps to reduce both the prescription errors and pharmacological interaction as well as allergic reactions and the misuse of drugs. In other words, the automation of the whole process helps to make sure the right patient receives the right medicine at the right time. Also, the patients are being monitored after the treatment by an electronic device, which provides the data on whether you have to see your doctor or not.

Carefully designed automation can help to avoid errors, simplify the doctor-patient relationships and take the healthcare processes to the next level of efficiency.

Maritta Perälä-Heape, Director in the CHT – Centre for Health and Technology at the University of Oulu, talked about information flows and interactions among users and applications. Maritta introduced the MyData approach, which is all about the consumer controlling his/her own data. Benefits of MyData for the enduser were presented to be for example better ways to interact with companies and public organizations, easy-to-use tools for personal data management and better privacy and transparency. Also the health care providers and the industry would benefit of MyData.

Andrea Sandi, founder of SINTAC, started with showing images and practical examples of how digitalization transforms the healthcare sector. He showed how to define a physical model to craft a personalized prosthesis by a 3D printing innovative system. This enables the partnership development with the medical staff, which is the key factor to success. Tailored is better in the future healthcare.

Michele Thonnet, International eHealth Affairs Executive in the Ministry of Social Affairs, continued and talked about opening data and borders. Michele talked about health issues, ehealth and connected health to improve citizen/patient’s health by making life-changing information available. Openness is something to strive for, but Michele pointed out that the openness and open data are very difficult in practice, because healthcare is a complex system of systems. Michele calls for cooperation for interoperability in all areas: legal, organizational, technical and semantic.

Madis Tiik, Senior Advisor in Sitra – Finnish Innovation Fund, pointed out that even if the discussion is very much in the health care, there are, in the matter of fact, several factors that affect to our health: behaviour, lifestyle, genetics, environmental and social factors and health care. Madis called for better health outcomes and more personalized care, and as an example, he presented the Virtual Clinic, which offer personalized services, and connects all the current separate health care services and operators together. It’s a place where people can get guidance and virtual help to the symptoms and monitor own medical record. New entrants are creating options consumers want, and threatening billions of dollars in hospital and physician revenue.