We’re diving into models towards strategies for trust in a webinar February 27, 2025 – across partnerships, borders, disciplines, and sectors.

Register via trustintransformation2.eventbrite.com

A great team of participants joined our event in Brussels January 27th, 2025 to talk about pathways for progress on trust as a tool for transformation in health and resilience in society.

Summary and presentations
Read a summary of the event here with references to further reading also and find pdf of presentations from Diana Arsovic, Lars Münter, and Nina Sønderberg. The meeting was held in Brussels at The Library Ambiorix – on a surprisingly sunny day in the Brussels winter. Participants from 10 different organisations debated the joint challenge – how to ensure better basis for promotion and emergence of trust by and in the climate of multistakeholder collaboration frameworks, that are an essential part of modern ecosystems of policy and service innovation. See a few pictures below.

Trust is essential for future health and wellbeing. So to explore this basic fact. NWA has initiated a process of collaboration with European partners to define methods and platforms to take practical action to better define how. How do we design for trust? How do we measure and adapt our strategy for trust?

January 27, 2025 we will be exploring this at collaborative event in Brussels – we look forward to share more about the outcome; but read more in the invite here;

The quest for wellbeing is as old as humanity. Creating a structured approach requires a civilisation capable of longterm thinking and strategy about the many implications for education, urban design, innovation, institutions, community involvement, allocation of ressources and much more.

NWA has collaborated with Cambridge Medical Academy for several years in pursuing the potential in a knowledge sharing of global practices from traditional and contemporary Chinese medicine with Western medicine and research – and potentially integrating also traditional Mongolian, Indian, African, or indigenous American practices also. Being humble enough to recognise that we still need to explore practices, compounds, and interactions much more across borders. While modern science has advanced immensely during the 20th Century in particular, neither oceans, space, genomics, or microbiomes are fully explored.

To advance the understanding and benefit of global collaboration, NWA participated in the One Health One Road inagural conference in Danfeng south of the historical city of Xi’an – renowned for the discovery of the terracota army of soldiers and the birthplace of the first Chinese dynasty of emperors. The conference gathered 400 dedicated researchers, especially from the Chinese TCM community, but also a small number of European changemakers eager to learn more by integrating ideas and approaches. Lars Münter shared experiences from our work in the Nordic Health 2030 Movement and the Danish Life Science Cluster on the future and nature of health and wellbeing, and the role of trust and collaboration for transformation in communities, institutions, and societies towards a sustainable future.

The sustainable future does not happen by chance. So we are happy to be able to annonce a new strategic collaboration between the Nordic Wellbeing Academy and the European Health Futures Forum that holds significant potential for transforming healthcare in Europe by combining the collective expertise in wellbeing, innovation, and future-focused health solutions.

The European Health Futures Forum’s forward-thinking approach to health systems and fostering a comprehensive and sustainable vision for the future aligns well with the Nordic Wellbeing Academy’s emphasis on holistic health and preventive measures. With NWA supporting EHFF in a new development stage, the two organizations can drive cross-border innovation, using data-driven insights and best practices from both Nordic and broader European contexts. And by pooling resources, they can share knowledge on cutting-edge technologies, policies, and interventions that are shaping the next generation of health systems. Nina Sønderberg participated in the EHFF Annual meeting to represent NWA in the discussions about the future of EHFF, and to present the possibilities in a collaboration agreement.

The collaboration also opens up opportunities for research and education that can empower healthcare professionals, policymakers, and communities to tackle complex health challenges collectively. Ultimately, this partnership intends to act as a transformational catalyst for creating resilient and adaptable health systems that prioritize wellbeing, equity, and long-term sustainability across Europe.

Since 2019, the Data Saves Lives initiative by the European Patients Forum has been vital for the important discussion about the digital transformation of healthcare and social services in Europe – and the key role of patient voices in all those evolutions. By ensuring data is accurate, secure, and accessible, the initiative helps address public health challenges, particularly in low-resource settings. In this context, ongoing debate about AI is crucial, as it addresses concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias, and the ethical implications of AI-driven decision-making in healthcare.

So in November 26-27, EPF marked the 5th Anniversary of the Data Saves Lives initiative to further emphasize the critical role of data in improving healthcare outcomes, advocating for the responsible use of personal health information to guide medical decisions and enhance patient care. The event gathered a great mix of patient advocates, data science experts, regulators, ngo representatives, policy makers and more.

NWA participated with having Lars Münter both being in a debate panel on Data Savvy Patients: Empowerment through AI Literacy in Healthcare with Anca Toma, CEO of EPF and Ildiko Vajda of the Dutch Patient Organisation, Eric Sutherland of the OECD and – Stefan Phillips, OneVision Healthcare. And by facilitating a workshop on the importance of education in enhancing trust (in data, health, collaboration etc).

27/12/2024, Brussels – Data Saves Lives 2024 – European Patients’ Forum EPF
© Elio Germani 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.