WISH SUPPORTS PREMIER ASIA-PACIFIC HEALTHCARE FORUM IN NEW ZEALAND

Doha, Qatar, 7 July 2015 – The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), a global initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), has announced that it will be a key supporter of the APAC Forum, the Asia-Pacific’s premier healthcare meeting.

Taking place on 23-25 September 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand, the APAC Forum will bring together 1,700 of the leading minds in healthcare to discuss innovation in healthcare and learn from leaders of pioneering programmes making tangible impact to patients and organisations around the world.

WISH will hold two sessions at this year’s event. The first session, led by Professor Robert Thomas, chief cancer advisor at the Victoria Department of Health and Human Services, and WISH’s Delivering Affordable Cancer Care Forum Chair, will discuss the causes of inflating cancer costs and overtreatment, and present pathways to address these challenges, including promoting greater patient engagement.

Tackling the persistent belief that patient harm is inevitable in health, WISH chief executive officer Egbert Schillings will lead the second session alongside Imperial College London’s senior policy fellow and director of operations, Centre for Health Policy, Gianluca Fontana and policy fellows, Centre for Health Policy, Jessica Prestt and Didi Thompson.

This session will highlight key findings of this year’s WISH report, Transforming Patient Safety: A Sector-Wide Systems Approach. The panel will focus attention on the critical issues in patient safety and present innovative efforts to address them, in particular outlining the Leading Health Systems Network (LHSN), a joint initiative of WISH and Imperial College London. Established in 2009, LHSN has worked with 21 health systems in 11 countries helping them to overcome the challenges they face in providing high-value care to the populations they serve.

Mr Schillings said: “WISH is delighted to support this year’s APAC Forum, the Asia-Pacific’s biggest and most significant healthcare meeting. By sharing our research and expertise in affordable cancer care delivery and patient safety, we hope to inspire healthcare leaders in the region to take up the innovations and recommendations in our reports for the benefit of the patients and communities that they serve.”

The APAC Forum is designed for health professionals who can influence change. Last year, the forum convened in Melbourne and attracted over 1500 delegates, including senior managers, board and policy makers, clinicians and quality improvement specialists from throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately 130 speakers across 42 sessions are scheduled for APAC 2015.

WISH inspires and diffuses healthcare innovation and best practice, remaining closely aligned to the vision and mission of Qatar Foundation to unlock human potential and serve to underscore Qatar’s pioneering role as an emerging centre for healthcare innovation.

ENDS

About the World Innovation Summit for Health:
The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) is a global healthcare community dedicated to capturing and disseminating the best evidence-based ideas and practices. WISH is an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), founded by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, its Chairperson.

The inaugural WISH Summit took place in Doha in 2013 and convened more than 1,000 global healthcare leaders. Through international summits and a range of on-going initiatives, WISH is creating a global community of leading innovators in healthcare policy, research and industry.

Together, they are harnessing the power of innovation to overcome the world’s most urgent healthcare challenges and inspire other stakeholders to action.

About APAC
The APAC Forum has fast become synonymous with the ideals of quality, innovation and high performance that it incites. The organisation behind Asia-Pacific’s premier healthcare conference is Ko Awatea. Ko Awatea is the centre for health system innovation and improvement at Counties Manukau’s District Health Board. The organisation is made up of doctors, nurses, researchers, academics, and innovators focused on producing outcomes for frontline healthcare.

http://www.apacforum.com

• Abstracts to display an academic poster at the APAC Forum can be submitted now. Simply follow the online instructions before 31 July 2015.

• For a full breakdown of prices (including group bookings, early bird discounts, gala dinner and pre-forum intensive sessions) please click here.