HELSINKI, 11/11/2025 — On 11 November 2025, the Transforming Health & Care Systems (THCS) Partnership convened its Annual Conference in Helsinki (Finlandia Hall), as part of the European Public Health Conference (EPH) pre-conference programme. The event brought together policy makers, researchers, funders and practitioners to exchange evidence, tools and real-world project experiences on how to accelerate the transition towards more integrated, people-centred and resilient health and care systems across Europe.
Organised by ProMIS in its role leading THCS communication and dissemination activities, the conference opened with a storytelling keynote by Ms. Giusi Condorelli (THCS Coordinator, Italian Ministry of Health). She introduced “Maria”, an older adult living alone with multiple chronic conditions and navigating fragmented care across hospitals, primary care, social services and digital providers. The story was a clear reminder that transformation must start from real needs and lived experience, and that THCS exists to support the shift towards holistic, preventive, person-centred and community-based models of care.
The programme then moved into four sessions, each combining policy perspectives with concrete methodologies and project examples:
The first session, “Methodologies for Evaluation & Impact Assessment”, explored how to evaluate and measure health system transformation at EU programme, partnership and project level. Speakers stressed the importance of clear objectives and credible pathways to impact, combined with mixed-methods approaches that capture both outcomes and the mechanisms of change, especially given the complexity of attribution in system-level transformation. The session also presented THCS WP8 work on an impact assessment framework and indicator set (including SMART and SPICED indicators) designed to track not only outputs, but also “transformative” dimensions such as uptake, implementation and stakeholder engagement.
The second session, “Strengthening Primary Care”, focused on the evolving role of primary care as the foundation of integrated, people-centred systems. The discussion combined global evidence on Primary Health Care with three THCS-funded project spotlights, HOME-C2P2, STARS-Health and TOGETHER, showing how team-based models, digital tools and community-based approaches can improve continuity, equity and chronic disease management. A recurring message was that scaling beyond pilots requires the right “enablers”: shared visions and mandates, interprofessional training, shared data and protocols, aligned funding flows, and early policy engagement.
The third session, “Mental Health in Community Care”, addressed mental health as a growing community-care challenge, combining EU policy priorities with project innovation. Speakers highlighted prevention and early detection, support for informal caregivers, and the potential of digital and immersive tools, while also underlining persistent barriers: unequal access, regulatory constraints for real-world testing, and ethical considerations such as safeguarding vulnerable groups and avoiding over-medicalisation. Examples from THCS funded projects DemiCare+, ePreventPsych, IPC4MH illustrated different approaches to these challenges, grounded in co-creation and adaptation to national contexts.
The final session, “Capacity Building for Health System Transformation”, focused on capacity building as a long-term enabler of transformation—far beyond “training”. Contributions from Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy stressed learning-oriented governance, system-wide workforce capability, strengthening research and innovation capacity (including reducing geographical gaps), and building readiness for data-driven transformation also in view of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The shared conclusion: capacity building is an organisational and cultural shift requiring sustained investment and learning infrastructures that help systems adapt over time.
All presentations are available on the event webpage (right column), together with the conference take-home messages.