Onassis Health Day 2021: All Predictions and Challenges in Healthcare in a virtual conference

The President of the Onassis Foundation, Anthony S. Papadimitriou, delivered the opening speech of the conference in which he underlined the Onassis Foundation's vision for universal access of citizens to quality healthcare services, he talked about the Foundation's contribution during the recent pandemic, and highlighted the digital transformation of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, the main focus of Onassis Foundation’s actions. He concluded his speech with the “new revolution” which is expected in the transplant sector thanks to the construction of the Onassis National Transplant Center.

The Alternate Minister of Health, Mina Gaga, in her opening address after thanking the Onassis Foundation for its long-standing contribution to the health sector, moved on to point out the challenges faced by the NHS during its 40 years. Both the digital transformation and the human capital, which must be supported and reinforced, will act as a catalyst in tackling the challenges and problems highlighted by the pandemic.

Ioannis Boletis, Chairman of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, talked about the low organ donation rates and the extra difficulties for transplant activities created by the pandemic and, then, focused on how the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center and the Onassis Foundation are expected to boost and strengthen transplantations, i.e. by building the Onassis National Transplant Center, training staff and commissioning the London School of Economics (LSE) to prepare the National Plan for Organ Donation and Transplantation in Greece.

Panos Minogiannis, President of the Onassis Scholars’ Association and General Manager of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, stressed among other things the fundamental need of the Association and its 2,500 members to give back to society, as an act for solidarity for the opportunity offered to them at the beginning of their careers through the Onassis scholarship.

Covid-19: catalyst for change in health policy, medical research and society

The first session was moderated by Marianna Dalamaga, physician, clinical pathologist, Professor at the Medical School of the University of Athens and Onassis Foundation Scholar.

The first speaker of the session was Elias Mossialos, Professor of Health Policy at LSE, Professor of Health Administration Services at Medical School, Imperial College London and Onassis Foundation Scholar. His speech, entitled “The health system in Greece after the pandemic”, stressed that this crisis tested the strengths of a health system, which turned out to be obsolete. Professor Mossialos outlined the criteria based on which the National Health System should be transformed: strategic planning, resource allocation, healthcare services purchase method, and development of a modern policy for health and welfare.

Drew Weissman, Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, delivered a speech entitled “Prevention and treatment of pandemics: The mRNA technique and the prospect of handling future pandemics”. He talked about mRNA therapies and the funding of vaccine research, partly by BioNTech. He also described the antigen of the vaccines and made reference to the first identified vaccine in 1798 for the smallpox pandemic. He made a point of referring to the vaccines’ safety and their rare adverse effects.

“No one is safe unless everyone is safe”. That's the phrase used by Marianna Trias, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to Greece and Head of WHO Country Office, to set the framework according to which global action to handle the pandemic must be based on. In her speech, “From global to national: Investments in health and cross-state partnerships”, Ms. Trias made particular reference to WHO's efforts for a new social contract aiming at healthy and resilient societies, even before the outbreak of the pandemic. This effort is also the bedrock of the European Programme of Work: United Action for Better Health in Europe.

The Deputy Minister of Development and Investments and Onassis Foundation Scholar, Christos Dimas, made a presentation in the time of the pandemic, focusing on Horizon and Horizon Europe programmes and stressing that for each single Euro invested in cutting-edge research, it is estimated that 11 Euros return to the real economy. He, then, outlined three important priorities for the future of health: turning research into innovation, funding research and interconnecting the fragmented innovation ecosystem.

A session on the impact of the pandemic on the present and future of the health system would be incomplete if the field of mental health was not represented. Dimitris Karagiannis, psychiatrist, existential systemic psychotherapist and Visiting Professor at Frederick University, Cyprus, gave a presentation entitled “Mental health or Covid-19: the day after / Certainties built in times of uncertainty”, in which he elaborated on 10 certainties developed during the pandemic, i.e. the time of absolute uncertainty, such as the end of closed systems, the universal and disarming confirmation that we are all subject to the same human fate, and that prosperity cannot satisfy the universal request for happiness.

In the first Q&A session, Mossialos said that in the post-Covid era, the review of the Ministry of Health's strategy, the detailed recording of needs and a more rational resource allocation are the top priorities. Weissman revealed that there is a vaccine against all corona viruses, which will soon enter the trial phase, while also reporting that good therapeutic outcomes against melanoma and solid cancer types have been achieved thanks to vaccines. Dimas emphasized the importance of upgrading Greece through investments from big foreign companies and stressed the benefits of being competitive. Moreover, he mentioned that the more investments the more opportunities for synergies between the business and academic community and the less brain drain. Karagiannis highlighted that mental illnesses during the pandemic were not a question of gender; they were rather dependent on how each individual had structured their life and how busy they might have been keeping themselves.

Digital transformation in Health: technology, information, data

Prodromos Tsiavos, Head of Digital Development & Innovation at Onassis Foundation, was the moderator of the second session.

The first speaker to take the floor and talk about digital transformation in Health could be none other than Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of State and Digital Governance. According to the Minister, important steps have been taken in Greece in the area of digital healthcare, such as electronic prescriptions, but more can and must be done in relation to patient registries, preventive tests recommendations, etc. Among other things, the Minister talked about “My health app”, the app that provides data to patients themselves.

The second speaker in this session was David Carr, Regional Vice-President Austria, Germany, Greece, Israel and Switzerland at Medtronic, who focused particularly on the shortages identified in the health sector throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The pandemic opened the door for many new developments, telemedicine being one of the most interesting ones and expected to offer many solutions to physicians and patients in the future.

Yiannis Ioannidis, Professor of Informatics & Telecommunications at the University of Athens, talked in detail about artificial intelligence as a tool to deduce data, legal and moral issues that arise from the use of technology and in relation to data privacy and security. He concluded his speech with a reference to the Human Brain Project, relating to neuroscience, computers and neurodegenerative diseases, and “The medical information platform”, which seeks to group all hospitals.

Andreas Massouras, CEO & Founder of Saphetor, presented the work and the mission of his company, which is to help everyone find and utilise the most comprehensible human genome data and cooperate with others to improve the health and lives of people from all over the globe. Finally, he pointed out the need to develop a global platform to collect human genome data.

Periklis Giovas, Medical Director at Amgen Hellas, also focused on telemedicine and the opportunities it opens up for medicine in general and for cardiovascular diseases in particular, which are the first cause of mortality in Europe. Some of the “achievements” of telemedicine, whose development was expedited by the pandemic, are: making up for the lack of physicians on ambulances, medical care after hospital discharge, smartphones and wearables.

Simos Kokkovos, Digital Health Services Manager at Siemens Healthineers, made a thorough analysis of the “digital twin”, a model that builds on artificial intelligence to create the twin digital representation of an individual, for whom all relevant medical data from scans and blood tests, or even data from wearables, have been collected. This model can decisively contribute to both prevention and healthcare.

During the second Q&A session, Carr presented some information on Medtronic’s position compared to its competitors, stressing that partnerships and interoperability are key to progress. Ioannidis underlined the importance of partnerships for big data management, while Massouras stressed the importance of protecting both medical and financial data. During the Q&A session, Giovas focused on the utilisation of technology, adding that the current biggest challenge is interoiperability and patient involvement throughout the process. Finally, Kokkovos gave an answer to those mistrusting artificial intelligence by stating that these new systems that apply AI are automatic but not autonomous, in the sense that humans always have the final word.

Building a resilient public health system

The third session was moderated by Alexandros Morellas, Health Program Manager at the Onassis Foundation.

The former Alternate Minister of Health, Vassilis Kontozamanis, first speaker in the third session, presented his views on how to build a resilient public health system at the aftermath of the pandemic. Its main pillars should be: equal access to healthcare for all citizens, cooperation between the private and the public sector, human capital development through incentives, modern payroll methods, NHS infrastructure and the necessary support framework by the State.

Andreas Xanthos, former Minister of Health and current Member of Parliament representing Rethymno and shadow Minister of Health for SYRIZA-P.A., presented several proposals to handle the pandemic, the most important one being the convening of a Political Parties Leaders Council under the President of the Hellenic Republic. As Xanthos pointed out, the current biggest risk is the morale of people working for the public health system. People working at the frontline are looking forward to urgent measures to be able to cope.

Eleftherios Tsiridis, Professor and Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, President of the European Hip Society and Onassis Foundation Scholar, highlighted the importance of processing speed and good use of big data in the response rates of the national health systems and underlined the role of technology in medicine by showcasing everyday impressive examples of surgical interventions.

Vassilios Balanis, CEO of the newly established National Organisation for Quality Assurance in Health (ODIPY) sought to familiarise the audience with ODIPY’s role and the factors contributing to the provision of quality healthcare services.

Vassilios Papalois, Professor of Transplantation Surgery at Imperial College London, made a detailed presentation on the new National Plan for Organ Donation and Transplantation in Greece, which was commissioned to the London School of Economics and Imperial College London by the Onassis Foundation. This very interesting presentation mainly focused on the difficulties in the current transplantation landscape in our country, the necessary reforms, the funding and the holistic approach that should be adopted.

In the third Q&A session, Kontozamanis stressed that it is high time for major changes to take place in order to build the health system of the next fifty years. Xanthos pointed out the need for investment in epidemiological monitoring, development of a health education culture and overcoming supranational challenges. Tsiridis highlighted the need for adoption of innovation by the public sector as well, while Papalois stated that the National Plan for Organ Donation and Transplantation in Greece may serve as a guide for strategic planning in the management of treating important diseases in our country.