The European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) provides a major platform for discussion among decision-makers in various fields of public health and healthcare in the European Union.

The theme of the conference was ‘Crisis and opportunity: health in an age of austerity.’

Personalised medicine, public health and non-communicable diseases were featured as topics of discussion.

Breast Health Day – Prevention and Early Detection of Breast Cancer was shortlisted for the European Health Award 2012.

Attendees of the conference included delegates from 27 EU members and the EEA countries, but also from the rest of the 52 countries of the WHO European region. Other countries were also represented, for example, the United States, India, China and Taiwan.

Healthcare reforms and topics were discussed and compared and contrasted between different countries in various forums.

The focus of the conference included:

• Non-communicable diseases
• Public health 2050
• Health systems sustainability
• Personalised medicine
• Health communication
• Global health governance

More information is available on European Health Forum Gastein website website.