Opportunities and Solutions for Health Care in Rural Areas

Sciana Members work together on solutions to challenges in health care in rural areas

Sciana Members Patrick Jahn and Marcel Napierala recently offered their expertise as part of a hackathon-type event focusing on the future of health care in rural areas.

The Innovation Camp took place in Halle, Germany, on April 4 and April 5. Representatives from academia, business, politics, and civil society attended.

Working together, experts considered sustainable ideas for health care in rural areas of Sachsen-Anhalt. Sachsen-Anhalt is the eighth largest state in Germany and has a population of 2.52 million people.

The Innovation Camp was organised by Sachsen-Anhalt’s Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitization as the German pilot project for the E.U. Commission. Challenges addressed topics including digitization, infrastructure, staffing, accessibility and the integration of international experts in nursing care.

Jahn, head of the nursing research unit at University Hospital Halle and principal investigator at the Translation Region for Digital Health Care chaired the programme alongside state secretary Jürgen Ude. Meanwhile, Napierala, chief executive officer of Medbase Group, gave the opening keynote presentation and reflected on innovation in rural areas in Switzerland.

In 2017, Jahn and Napierala were part of the inaugural cohort selected for Sciana: The Health Leaders Network.

Jahn has previously spoken about projects to improve the training of academic nurses and ways to advance cancer pain management. Napierala has also discussed the importance of technology and artificial intelligence in physicians’ inter-human activity.

The camp was attended by 120 professionals and hailed a “great success” by Jahn.

Reflecting on the occasion, he said, “We are very proud of being selected the pilot project for a new format of the E.U. commission to involve E.U. citizens to develop transformative health care solutions. The two-day camp opened a creative spirit and model solutions, e.g., for digital health care agenda, integration of international workforce or participative living support that will reach out through the region.”

Patrick Jahn and Marcel Napierala are members of the 2017 Sciana cohort.