In the family of major trade fairs dedicated to the health sector, Luxembourg is seeking to carve out a place for itself on a par with Santexpo in Paris and Medica in Düsseldorf. The second Healthcare Week Luxembourg, organised on the initiative of the Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL) with the support of the events agency Quinze Mai, will be held on 1 and 2 October at Luxexpo. On the programme: two days of conferences and panels with key players in the Greater Region's healthcare system, in the broadest sense. Philippe Turk, chair of the hospital federation, provides an overview of this year's event.

Maëlle Hamma: The first Healthcare Week Luxembourg was held in September 2023. What did you learn from it?

Philippe Turk: The initiative itself was a great success. It was a first to bring together in Luxembourg all the players in the wider healthcare sector, and not just those in charge of patients. We welcomed 2,500 visitors and just over 100 exhibitors. And we felt that our partners from the worlds of business, research and education appreciated this initiative. This is undoubtedly something that was missing. But the key factor for success, in my opinion, is that we are not just aiming for a Luxembourg event, but an event on the scale of the Greater Region.

Why is it essential when it comes to healthcare to think beyond the borders of Luxembourg?

To compare ideas from the four health systems around us, in which we live. This includes research, innovation and teaching, where there is an absolutely impressive potential for collaboration. In fact, in our conferences and roundtables, we will be bringing in people from the various surrounding countries. We want to create a small European laboratory for healthcare systems, and we think it's an extremely useful way of thinking together. Within European healthcare systems, we all face the same challenges. Human resources, innovation, care pathways... So I think we need to come up with common answers. For me, this is one of the key ideas behind Healthcare Week. We are not an isolated island.

After the first edition, have there been any concrete collaborations between some of the players who took part in Healthcare Week Luxembourg?

Our ambition is above all to create a platform for exchange and discussion. After the first event, a number of healthcare players joined forces with [business federation] Fedil, which is a good thing. A second element that should also be highlighted is the new patient associations group, Capat [Cercle des associations de patients]. Today, the notion of patient-partner is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare sector. With Capat, we have developed a Luxembourg model to see how this concept can evolve across borders.

Like the notion of patient-partner, that of personalised medicine is gaining in importance. How will these themes be addressed during the event?

Our first session on 1 October will be devoted to medicine and the evolution of the ecosystem towards personalised medicine. There are lots of related concepts, ranging from ethics to funding mechanisms and so on. It calls into question many aspects of the healthcare system.

What will this year's theme be?

The medicine of the future, in a very global way, with an emphasis on personalised medicine and the notion of value creation. This is the concept of value-based healthcare, which describes the healthcare system not as something that costs money, but as something that creates value. These concepts underpin the general development of healthcare systems. As for personalised medicine, it's going to present us with enormous challenges, in terms of both technology and funding methods... Will we be able to afford all that? Will we be able to maintain supportive healthcare systems? We need to look at this from a conceptual point of view, but also from the point of view of technology and patients. We also need to think about the implications for teaching and research. That's why it's so important to bring all the players together to think about the medicine of the future.

This year, Healthcare Week Luxembourg is being held over two days rather than three. How did you come up with the scientific programme?

We have a scientific programme made up of a number of hospital staff, as well as other players from research institutes, universities, the Ministry of the Economy, Luxinnovation, etc. They are all very active in planning the of roundtables and conferences. We plan to have 30% more floor space than last year, with a similar number of exhibitors. On the other hand, we've compressed the event into two days because it was a bit long for the exhibitors. Otherwise, the model remains the same, with the main conference on the main stage, with keynote speakers and roundtables. There's also an agora where presentations are made at hospital federation level. On the first evening, a gala dinner will be held, with the presentation of the , the aim of which is to raise the profile of enterprising people working to improve systems, in three categories: innovation in hospital management, medical research and startups.

How do you see the arrival of AI in the world of healthcare?

AI is bringing a monstrous wave of innovation in healthcare as in everything else. And we're going to have to understand what's going on and sort out what's useful and necessary in this wave in order to move forward. It will play a role in all areas: research, teaching and patient care. It is already present in the organisation of hospitals and in medical imaging. But I think we're going to see a spectacular acceleration, whether in hospital human resources management, biotech research, disease diagnosis and in the creation of new drugs.

There is a lot of progress to be made in many areas. The hospital sector and the medical and care sectors are ready.

Philippe Turk, chairman, Federation of Luxembourg Hospitals (FHL)

How does Luxembourg compare with other countries when it comes to innovation in healthcare?

That's one of the challenges of the system. Until now, we've had relatively little interaction between research and clinical practice. Hospitals have a great deal of experience in this area. But this is something that absolutely must be developed. Hospitals are ready to do this, but support policies need to be defined. Compared with other countries, our research and teaching practices are less comprehensive. In Luxembourg, medical studies have only been in existence for a few years and they are still incomplete. So there is a lot of progress to be made in many areas. The hospital sector and the medical and care sectors are ready.

What could slow down the development of Luxembourg's healthcare system in this direction?

There is a problem of human resources and vocation throughout Europe. And the answers can't just be local. We also need to change working practices and methods. Another question that our society needs to ask itself is how much of our wealth we are prepared to spend on the healthcare system, because it is not going to get any cheaper in the years to come. If we want to keep a system based on solidarity and universal access, we really need to think about making it more efficient, and being able to fund therapeutic innovations that will benefit patients first and foremost. There is a lot of systemic thinking to be done. We believe that the Luxembourg healthcare system is partly underfunded.

Another key issue in the ‘health of the future’ is data management. Where do we stand on this?

This is an enormous challenge. In Luxembourg, I think we now have a good approach. We are still in a capacity-building phase. We have set up the Luxembourg National Data Service, which guarantees both the legal and ethical quality of data, and I think that the government has taken the right steps in this direction.

Read the original French version of this interview