IHF World Hospital Congress 2018

World Hospital Congress Logo

The World Hospital Congress of the International Hospital Federation (IHF) dates back to 1929, when it was first held in Atlantic City, USA as a biennial event. It is the unique global forum where multidisciplinary exchange of knowledge, expertise and experiences in health sector management and service delivery is facilitated.

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association was honoured to host the 42nd IHF World Hospital Congress in Brisbane from 10 to 12 October 2018.

Over 1,000 health leaders from around the world came to Brisbane to discuss key issues around the shift to value-based care, the role of hospitals in the broader medical neighbourhood and how data and technology are transforming healthcare delivery under the overarching theme Innovate |Integrate | Inspire: How can healthcare evolve to meet 21st century demands?

With a program that included 10 major keynote addresses, 46 sessions on 3 key themes, over 160 speakers and 100+ poster presentations from more than 40 countries, the 42nd Word Hospital Congress provided a forum to share journeys to date and solutions for the future.

Below you can find selected presentations and reports from each of the Congress days. A complete list of presentations and posters, will be available shortly on the IHF Congress website.

Pre-Congress

Ahead of the World Hospital Congress two workshops were held.

The Redefining Healthcare workshop was led by Professor Elizabeth Teisberg, co-author of Redefining Health Care, and her colleagues Profs. Scott Wallace and Alice Andrews.  This two-day, highly-interactive workshop on implementing value-based health care reflected the latest innovations studied at the Value Institute for Health and Care at the Dell Medical School in Austin, Texas. Participants in the workshop learned why value-based health care is essential and how to begin creating and implementing high-value care.

The Potentially Preventable Hospitalisations Thought-Leadership Forum was hosted by Novartis and brought together a diverse group of leaders in a facilitated discussion to create connections, spark new ideas and contribute to solving this critical issue.

Day 1 — From volume to value

A global movement is underway to change the focus of hospitals and health organisations from volume of services and activities to the value of the outcomes achieved. Day one of the World Hospital Congress featured discussions on value-focused care, patient reported outcome and experience measures, transparency in reporting, preparing for transformational change and achieving funding value.

Day 2 — From four walls to the neighbourhood

Day two of the World Hospital Congress examined how hospitals can be good citizens in the medical neighbourhood where the acute, primary and community care sectors all have a role to play. Discussions focused on how integrating care can be supported at funding, structural and clinical levels to provide sustainable, appropriate health services and how an integrated approach can provide better health outcomes and sustainable universal health care.

Day 3 — From information to intelligence

The information revolution has provided us with greater capacity than ever before to collect data - from detailed clinical information, to patient flows, we have more information than ever at our fingertips. Day three of the World Hospital Congress examined the ways that transforming information into intelligence will allow the delivery of more reliable and patient centred care, and how it can be used to plan for and deliver services efficiently and effectively while also addressing how security, privacy, workforce training and other concerns are being addressed.

Design Jam

Ideas on their own won’t change outcomes for stakeholders of our health care systems. It is action driven by committed and creative multi-disciplinary teams that will make the difference.

The 42nd World Hospital Congress featured the conference’s first ever one-day Design Jam event, aimed at bringing together bright and curious thinkers from across the health sector to turn ideas into action.

Participants used human-centred design methods to reimagine some of the thorniest challenges in health care, taking inspiration from the conference themes: volume to value; four walls to community; information to intelligence. The resulting solutions were presented to the Congress delegates at the end of Day 2.