As a result of cooperation with the Ideas from Europe project the eMEN project was given an opportunity to present itself at the ‘power pitch’ session ‘Future Now Health: Solution Stage’ (“Moving from sick-care to health-care: prevention and healthy living”) of the Global Entrepreneurship (GES) summit which was held in The Hague from June 3-5. On June 5th eMEN project leader Oyono Vlijter presented some of the challenges with regard to the implementation of e-mental health products and also emphasised the importance of process innovation - there are many e-mental health products available but it is quite a challenge to implement these products into existing mental health care systems. Many of the eHealth innovations presented have to deal with multidisciplinary implementation challenges. There were several other pitchers about (e)health innovations and challenges, including Judith van Schaik (Personalized Healthcare / Roche), Marvy Rieder (The Models Health Pledge), Vanessa Michelini (Watson for Genomics / IBM) and Paul Iske (Professor of Open Innovation and Business Venturing).
GES is held annually to promote entrepreneurship worldwide. The Summit helps innovators establish links with foreign investors who can assist in scaling up internationally. At GES 2019, policymakers from governments also attended. This way, GES offers a unique, international platform for companies to demonstrate their innovative solutions to major challenges the world is facing today; in order to take their ideas and innovations to the next level, they not only need investments but often adapted regulations as well.
There were a lot of interesting leading GES speakers, including queen Máxima, Prince Constantijn and prime minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Ivanka Trump from the USA.