Arena Welfare Technology moves on: towards the Welfare Technology Forum!

In 2013, IT&Telekomföretagen launched Arena Välfärdsteknologi (Welfare Technology Arena), with the main aim of providing an arena for dialog and discussion between the IT industry and other welfare stakeholders. IT&Telecom companies and the industry recognized the great potential of IT to contribute to better and more efficient health and social care, but that despite many initiatives in the field, it seemed difficult to disseminate them.

There was a strong need to identify and eliminate barriers to the implementation of welfare technology in health and social care, as well as to speed up the adoption of new solutions.

By creating an arena where companies developing IT for the welfare sectors could meet commissioners, organizations and politicians and together discuss operational, business, economic and political issues, we hoped to increase the insight of relevant decision-makers about IT solutions as enablers and means to meet the challenges facing the health and care sector.

The need for a common arena for welfare technology issues has by no means diminished since 2013. On the contrary, the need for coordination and long-term plans for national scale-up of individual digital projects is greater than ever. During the Almedalen Week in 2015, IT&Telekomföretagen proposed to the government to establish a Welfare Technology Forum, following the successful model of the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation's Broadband Forum, which is responsible at national level for issues relating to e-health and welfare technology.

Joint knowledge journey with SKL

In light of this and with the ambition to lay the foundation for the establishment of a Welfare Technology Forum, in 2016 we are concentrating the activities of Arena Welfare Technology on a four-part knowledge journey for specially invited key people in decision-making roles, at both political and official level. The knowledge journey, The digital road to tomorrow's health and social care, is conducted together with SKL (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions) and will include both knowledge transfer and inspiration as well as practical work for the participants. The knowledge journey starts on March 21.

New Member Council: Council for Welfare Technology

As interest in the area is increasing, not least among our member companies, IT&Telekomföretagen is now also starting the Council for Welfare Technology, which, like our other councils, only engages our members. The Council will work in parallel with, and as a sounding board for, Arena Welfare Technology and primarily offer the participants an exchange of experience and knowledge and the opportunity to ensure that our work with influence and opinion formation in the issues is well anchored and fact-based. The Council invites interested parties to a first start-up meeting on March 8.