Malta is pushing major healthcare developments on Europe, says Minister for Health, Chris Fearne

Med-Tech World has opened its doors to thousands for a first day of conferences and networking. Happening at the Hilton Hotel, Saint Julians, we had the honour to have Hon. Chris Fearne, Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health open the conference with a keynote on major healthcare developments being spearheaded by Malta.

Malta’s top 3 healthcare innovations

Remote patient monitoring (RPM)

Dr. Fearne opened the keynote with remarks on the importance of clarity and transparency when it comes to RPM. An important thing to consider when innovating this sector is accessibility and user-friendliness, in consideration of the fact that most patients benefitting from this sector are not doctors and vary greatly in age.

A hidden blessing of the covid pandemic was realising the great many benefits of RPM. The minister ensured that RPM and other digital healthcare services are here to stay, and major innovation is to be expected.

RPM is a crucial aspect of digital health. It covers the use of digital technologies to collect various forms of health data from individuals for perusal by health care providers in a different location.

Telemedicine 

Alongside RPM, Telemedicine is an improvement measure in response to the major footfall that occurred at hospitals and clinics during the pandemic. It has been primarily responsible for reducing doctor visits at patient homes by 80%. Telemedicine has not only improved patient care and practitioner mental health, but healthcare practices overall in terms of efficiency.

eLabelling

eLabelling is the process of digitising information related to medicines and treatment, putting them on a database and making it accessible to patients buying the product.  It is meant to overcome various language barriers.

“In the current situation, having an open medical market is not enough, as in places with over 30 languages in use, such as in Europe, patients of various nationalities need to understand the information they are reading. With eLabelling, patients will be able to scan medicinal labels and gain access to the database, which will feature translations in every language” Hon. Chris Fearne.

Other innovative projects in the pipeline

Health Data is useful for global healthcare, as a German doctor in Germany, for instance, can access a Maltese tourist’s health records, skipping the lengthy process of taking a detailed medical history. This is a project that Malta is pushing to make a reality within four years.

The Metaverse is also set to be implemented, meant to revolutionise how medical students are learning to practice medicine. From learning how to operate on pigs to implementing physical simulations, students nowadays are moving to Metaverse Surgical Training, which is a sector promising major growth.

Quantum Computing is meant to address the costly, time-ineffective method of approving new drugs. Quantum Computing, alongside AI and machine learning, provides healthcare the services required to speed up these processes drastically by taking note of analysing significant biomarkers gleaned from clinical trials.

Who’s who? Hon. Chris Fearne

Hon. Chris Fearne is Malta’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health. He has worked as a doctor and paediatric surgeon for over 30 years and also lectured students of medicine at the University of Malta. Across Dr Fearne’s many endorsements of Med-Tech World, he noted the summit’s positive effect on Malta’s reputation as a leading healthtech and digital health platform.

Med-Tech World Europe is back bolder than ever!

2022 has been a bustling year. Following major success in Dubai, Toronto and Belgrade, Malta Week has returned to rock the island awake from its Autumn-blues stupor. KOL-led conferences, luxurious nightly festivities and a gripping pitch competition, Malta Week is the location to be for the latest developments from the digital health and Medtech industries. Benefit from all this and premium networking opportunities by hopping onto the bandwagon and getting your ticket now!

The Med-Tech World Europe Summit is taking place on the 17th and 18th of November at the Hilton Hotel, Saint Julians, Malta.