The challenge of antimicrobial resistance rises almost exponentially, threatening to destroy decades of progress in modern surgery or other invasive prodecures. The change gear, the Swedish multistakeholder initiative AntibiotikaSmart has been established as a national action platform, lead primarily by RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) in collaboration with the National Public Health Agency..

NWA was happy to be invited to join the initiative in a knowledge sharing of progress, challenges, and tools at an event in Stockholm November 19, 2024 – and great to see the ambition and energy of the gathered stakeholders there. Among products, the initiative has developed a learning platform and a certification system for both social care and educational institutions to bring them into the important work.

We look forward to further support this work in 2025, including by joining with members of the European Health Fututures Forum to also try to bring these Swedish tools further into a European action context.

Digitalisation and digital transformation has been at the core of the EHiN conference for a decade – a growing event for partners in and outside the Nordics to understand the evolution and challenges of both Nordic, European, and global e-health possibilities and realities.

NWA participated and facilitated a debate about linking welfare and the wellbeing economy with Bengt Andersson from the Nordic Wellfare Centre, Christian Boel from Aarhus Municipality (DK), and Helle Sörensen Östersund Municipality (SE) – a great dive in the paths towards implementation of next generation health policies and practices at local level.

Read more about speakers, programme, and presentations at the EHiN website here.

Photo courtesy of EHiN / Ard Jongsma, Still Words Photography.

The European University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Medical Association has developed a high-level and target forum for both knowledge sharing and informal dialogue about cutting edge health technology and clinical discoveries that can improve health.

NWA was invited to present our work in the Nordic Health 2030 Movement and also the latest development of a model for assessment of multipartner collaboration framework for the Danish Life Science Cluster. This took place as part of a dedicated session one personalised medicine, organised by the Cambridge Medical Academy.

Held in Nicosia, Cyprus, 7-9 November 2024, the 12th IMBMC international congress event also allowed NWA to see the vibrant atmosphere in the last divided city in Europe – and both the challenge and potential of joint collaboration for a prosperous future for all. The alternative – or the cost of inaction – is enourmous.

Elevate Health is a growing network of researchers from across non-institutional stakeholders dedicated to discussing both models for assessment of health and transformative pathways.

NWA participated in a creative workshop for validating a new analytic model – in a fascinating mix of people and minds. Read more about the group here.

It is always exciting to get to the first actual meeting in a new project. In the Forgotten Fish project this meant a visit to the Foggia province of Apulia, Italy.

Given the purpose of the project – to find new paths to enable gastronomical entrepreneurs to transform forgotten fish species into new culinary experiences and a contribution to a transformation towards sustainable food systems – this was a golden opportunity to also connect history with future.

In addition to a series of microtrainings, we got to experience the traditional (but challenged by climate change) fishing communities in Peschisi, artisinal wine making practices in San Severo, and bread making (from flour to fork) in Foggia it self.

Amazing landscape, people, tastes, and history. And a great meeting for our Greek, Italian, and Danish consortium. We look forward to meeting in Syros and Ærø – almost worlds apart, but connected by sea, cooking, and fish.

What do doctors need to know? Obviously a lot. And building the right curricula for doctors is one of the core functions of medical schools across the globe. Science, experience, technology, demographics, and climate too change over time. So must the curricula for doctors.

This is the background for the conference of AMSE2024 with theme of “Educating for patient-centred and community-engaged healthcare”.

Held by AMSE, The Association of Medical Schools in Europe and organized by the School of Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in Thessaloniki , Greece, on 17-19 October 2024, NWA was present to contribute with a presentation on the urgency of medical schools to also include elements about wellbeing economy.

We also had the great opportunity to meet with the amazing team at PsyLab at the Institute for Applied Bioscience at CERTH – so many exciting possibilities in and from their multidisciplinary approach to digital development and the future of health technology.

With project partners in Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary, NWA was excited to join the kick off meeting in Limoges, France for the MentaStress project: Empowering First Responders for Better Mental Health in Crisis Situations.

The project is an innovative EU-wide initiative designed to both enhance first responders’  efficiency in emergencies and to support their mental well-being before and after.

The project will develop learning materials based on real life crisis events, and a multilingual platform to support the first responders and raise awareness. We will also explore and build augmented reality tools to create immersive stress-management training for first responders and carry out training in five EU countries to validate tools and content. This will help us build a comprehensive stress management guide.

MentaStress connects 9 partners across 7 EU countries, spans over 24 months and includes pilot programs, research, events, and seminars, creating an inclusive platform that targets broad engagement and sustainability.

We aim to shape policies in crisis management and mental health at both the national and EU levels. By fostering cross-sector cooperation, MentaStress will offer scalable and transferable training solutions, improving crisis response and mental health support for first responders and the community.

Smart Health Age-Friendly Environments are the purpose of the SHAFE Foundation. NWA has the great honour of participating in the EU Week for Sustainable and Inclusive Communities: the future is SHAFE – taking place October 1-3, 2024.

NWA participated with a presentation on “Looking at the future: health and wellbeing European citizens” and talk about trust, accountability and KPIs, about cross-sector collaboration, and about horizon scanning as a tool for strategy and progress.

Read more at the event site here – or read about the SHAFE Foundation here and their amazing work explore and promote age-friendly progress in Europe.

The Future of Trust? NWA participated in the Tour de Health 2024 organised by Healthcare Denmark to present its work on establishing a KPI model to assess quality and progress in multistakeholder partnerships, especially for mission-driven ones.

The Tour de Health 2024 gathered health care and life science stakeholders from 13 diplomatic missions in Copenhagen to learn from Danish experiences and share their own in trying to work with complex issues in the some times challenging world multistakeholder platforms. The event was a great opportunity to also dive deep into the issue of trust and transformation with both Danish Life Science Cluster community partners (Nordic Healthcare Group, Novo Nordisk, and Lundbeck) and also global partners (Global Health Literacy Academy), trans-Atlantic (Engage Nova Scotia), European (EUREGHA), and Danish (Prescient).

It also gave a good opportunity for further dialogue about the nature of collaboration – gathering also feedback from Canadian Ambassador Carolyn Bennet, Head of Impact at Novo Nordisk Foundation Thomas Alslev Christensen, Professor at the University of Copenhagen Maria Kristiansen, Country Director Denmark Johnson & Johnson Julie Brooker, and Deputy CEO Rigshospitalet Martin Magelund Rasmussen. Find all of the videos here.

The theme of EHFG 2024 was the shifting sands of health – a core challenge for health and wellbeing in Europe is the ever shifting strategic interests of health in both the Member States and in the EU.

The policy forum in Gastein offers a unique opportunity to connect with organisations and policy makers – check out both recordings, presentations, themes, photos and more at ehfg.org

NWA participated in both networking events and facilitated both workshop session environmental determinants for health in EU policy – and also helped crowd source input on ideation for Commission and Parliament on future health policy.