Governance is the framework through which health systems and organisations set and oversee clear strategic goals to ensure the quality and safety of patient care, performance of services, as well as compliance with laws, regulations, and ethical responsibilities. Effective governance is essential to achieve objectives, drive improvement, and deliver the valued outcomes for citizens and patients. Governance is complex and evolving, and a universal common framework or simple concept of health systems governance does not yet exist.

Leadership is a key principle of governance and must be embedded within governance systems to ensure that systems and organisations are led to accomplish their objectives and meet their strategic goals.

Social responsibility is an ethical framework that underlines how the choices of individuals may affect the whole society. Applied to health management, social responsibility is strictly interlinked with the concepts of resilience and sustainability. Health professionals, health managers, and health systems should be accountable for their behaviours toward society.

This track would include abstracts that:

• analyse leadership theories, styles, approaches, knowledge, and skills required to meet the needs of health systems
• transfer theoretical perspectives to shape the development of a strategic focus
• focus on performance management, quality assurance, and patient safety
• are forward looking and anticipate future trends in health management and health systems
• explore the concepts of clinical and business governance
• discuss legal aspects and ethics of health services and systems
• evaluate the factors that impact the role of leaders within health and social care
• discuss ethical theories and aspects of health professionals, health managers, and health systems’ responsibility towards the society
• present best practices of responsible governance and leadership in health management.

The transition towards person-centred care requires health care systems to be integrated. This track focuses on the operations of organisations and systems. It pays attention to the efforts involved in the planning, organising, staffing, monitoring, directing, and decision-making processes of health services and systems to ensure the effective, efficient, and equitable use of resources.

The abstracts to be considered within this track include, but are not limited to those that:

• share insights from evidence-based research that translate management knowledge into practice contribute to better practice by sharing scalable and innovative models/solutions or improved processes
• identify key lessons based on rigorous analysis of existing practices and models
• provide case studies focusing on implementation of management models.

Health systems rely on their workforce. This track focuses on how human resources are managed to support the delivery of health services. This includes challenges relating to optimal planning, personnel shortages, the post-COVID ‘great resignation’, remunerations and incentives, and competence building.

Against this background, this track will include abstracts that:

• propose frameworks to measure the efficiency of workforce management models
• adopt quantitative approaches to compare transferrable management best practices as emerged in response to the ongoing European major challenges
• include the workforce perspective before and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This track examines business planning and refers to how resources are raised, pooled, allocated or spent to ensure that people have access to health services of good quality without financial hardship. This includes issues related to efficiency, effectiveness, value and behaviour in the production and consumption of health and healthcare.

This track would include abstracts that:

• articulate the drivers of spending and the factors impacting total spending and value
• focus on the financial and economic concepts of health management, such as payment systems and models, budget modelling, investment decisions, health spending/costs
• address challenges in economic evaluation and decision models by highlighting best practices
• present the financial challenges and solutions to the current and future needs, such as the use of technology
• support in setting priorities in national, regional, or organisational contexts towards the best use of resources.

Beyond organisations, policy decisions made at the local, regional, national, and European level have an important impact on health systems, care, and practitioners. Policy mechanisms (e.g., regulation, financial, quality, and technical) can incentivise or hinder the adoption of innovative solutions to improve health outcomes. This track focuses on the development, planning, implementation, and evaluation of policies and regulations affecting health management at the organisational, local, regional, national, and European levels.

Abstracts submitted within this track would include those that:

• analyse relevant policy aspects of challenges in health management
• provide insight on public health challenges, paradigm shifts and health reforms
• share evidence and information on policy issues and possible solutions
• link health management and public health policies with practice
• discuss the involvement and impact of national policymakers, the European Union, as well as internal organisations on health systems.