Today EFN was one of the speakers in the high-level event organised by the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the European Union on “A Roadmap for an Ethical AI in Healthcare”.
Among the high-level speakers featured MEP Tomislav Sokol (Coordinator for the EPP in SANT, Croatia) who gave an important overview of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation, which was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 5 March. The EHDS is entering into force on 26 March, marking the start of a long implementation phase. A key milestone for EFN will be March 2029, when the EHDS will enter into application for the primary use of data, meaning that frontline nurses will have access to the patients’ electronic health records (EHRs) anywhere in the EU. For this reason, Mr Sokol stressed the need to adequately and train frontline healthcare professionals, so that frontline nurses and patients can fully benefit from health data exchange enabled by the EHDS (read the EFN (2023) Policy Statement on EHDS).
Another high-level speaker was Lorena Boix Alonso (Deputy Director-General, DG SANTE). During her interventions, Ms Boix Alonso emphasised the need to adequately educate and train frontline nurses and allied healthcare professionals in the use of AI and other digital tools. This is key to ensure that nurses can support and benefit from the implementation of these tools in their daily practice, and also educate patients/citizens. She emphasised the role of the European Commission to support these efforts, including through the Pact for Skills, and thanked the EFN for its contribution as a key partner for the European Commission.
Manuel Ballota from EFN emphasised that AI already plays an important role in nursing care pathways, supporting frontline nurses in diagnosis, treatment and care. In fact, EFN will be hosting a symposium at the ICN Congress which will take place in Helsinki in June, where some of the EFN Members from Poland, Norway, Estonia, and the Czech Republic will share their best practices in the frontline implementation of AI. He stressed however that when it comes to AI, the nurses’ oversight is crucial, as it is a matter of liability! Moreover, he emphasised the importance of investing in the nurses’ education in digital skills, in line with the updated Annex V to the Directive 2013/55/EU, and of ensuring co-creation by the frontline nurses/end users. This will be crucial to good implementation and frontline deployment! (Read the EFN (2024) Policy Statement on improving frontline nurses’ time for direct patient care with digitisation and responsible AI)