The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare delivery over an extensive period of time. As safety considerations and restrictive public health policies made traditional models of care impracticable, healthcare providers had to adapt their services and patients had to change their care seeking behaviours. This situation created unprecedented conditions for the development and adoptions of a wide range of healthcare innovations. In particular, physical distancing requirements triggered a dramatic increase in the utilization of e-health and m-health technologies. Simultaneously, health systems need to cope with the new epidemiological burden not only of acute disease management of people with severe respiratory difficulties but also with the fast-emerging issue of long-term complications dubbed long COVID. Furthermore, the already gigantic logistical issue of mass-testing and mass-vaccination is under the constant threat of the apparition of new variants. Not only healthcare delivery but also its financing along with equity issues urgently need to be carefully examined.

The sixth ATHEA conference will explore the opportunities and challenges raised by the health care innovation and health system adaptations triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The conference will take place from Thursday, 23rd September 2021 (late-morning start) to Friday, 24th of September 2021 (ending midday). The event will feature one keynote speaker on each day addressing the main theme of the conference, as well as 2 parallel sessions organized according to the themes that will emerge from the selected papers.

It gives us great pleasure to announce two renowned key note speakers:

• Florin Kruse, postdoctoral researcher at the IQ healthcare in Radboudumc
• Matteo M. Galizzi, professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics

As in previous years, submissions for presentation are welcome in all fields of health economics and health policy, including long-term care, and are not restricted to the conference topic.

Notification abstract acceptance: 14th of August 2021

Registration for non-presenters: per email to conference@athea.at

Conference venue: Institut für Höhere Studien (IHS), Josefstädter Straße 39, 1080 Vienna, Austria

Conference languages: English, German

Conference fee: 95 Euro

Download: Programme for the 6th ATHEA Conference

Download: Book of Abstracts

To ensure a safe and comfortable conference, we’re implementing the following safety measure: