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Introduction Big data is defined as the amount of data that once organized and analysed, can make a value, make decisions, make predictions and discover patterns in order to reduce costs, avoid risks and optimize services. Machine Learning (ML) is a field of artificial intelligence and is characterized as a method of machine learning, which uses algorithms that learn from data analysis, allowing computers to find patterns, draw conclusions and make predictions. These tools can be used in different areas of human knowledge, particularly in the health sector which are generated daily a huge amount of information, allowing the creation of algorithms that learn and gain understanding to assist in various clinical practices. Objectives The purpose of this paper is to analyse the benefits of Big Data and Machine Learning in providing overall health care. Methodology We conducted a review of the scientific literature published in the electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar, according to specific criteria, using keywords: Big Data", "Machine Learning". Results In the field of oncology (skin cancer, breast, lung, leukaemia) ML and Big Data have contributed to early diagnosis of different pathologies and their evolution, as well as optimizing therapies. In ophthalmology (diabetic retinopathy and congenital cataract) has shown high efficacy in rapid diagnosis and appropriate treatment crucial to prevent the progress of the disease. The tested algorithms achieved very favourable results in cases of Parkinson's and cardiovascular diseases. In the pharmaceutical industry these computer and digital tools have contributed to the optimization of clinical trials, genome sequencing of tumours to then identify and develop specific drugs to fight it. Conclusion Advances of MIL and Big data are notorious and development opportunities are immense and can come to revolutionize tasks such as diagnosis, treatment and health care in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 has reinforced the centrality of health workers at the core of a well performing and resilient health system. It has concomitantly exposed the risks of staffing and skills shortages and the importance of protecting the health workforce. This paper focuses on highlighting some of the lessons learnt, challenges and future needs of the health workforce in Europe in the context of COVID-19. Methods: We use secondary sources and expert information. Results: During the pandemic innovative and flexible approaches were implemented to meet increasing demand for health workers and new skills and responsibilities were adopted over a short period of time. We have seen the rapid adaptation and use of new technologies to deliver care. The pandemic has underlined the importance of valuing, protecting and caring for our health workforce and the need to invest appropriately and adequately in the health workforce to have sufficient, capable and wellmotivated health workers. Some of the main challenges that lie ahead of us include the imperative for better investment, to need to improve recruitment and retraining whilst better retaining health workers, a focus on domestic sustainability, redeploying and developing new skills and competences among health workers, enabling more effective multi-professional collaboration and team work, improving the quality of education and training, increasing the public health focus and promoting ethical and sustainable international recruitment of health workers. Conclusions: The WHO European Region through its European Programme of Work 2020-2025 is fully committed to support countries in their efforts to continue to respond to COVID-19 and whilst addressing upcoming health workforce challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic presented a wide range of challenges to cancer control. People with possible symptoms of cancer were considered less likely to present for investigation. Patients with cancer were concerned about increased risk of illness or death from this novel virus. Cancer services had to ensure continued delivery of time-sensitive care. Public health skills and leadership have been key to Ireland’s National Cancer Control Programme’s COVID response. The multi-disciplinary skill set within the Programme includes an understanding of health protection principles, experience in rapid service redesign, monitoring of service delivery, patient and public communication, advocacy and guidance development, all of which have been integral to the pandemic response. Specific areas addressed include: rapid turnaround of guidance documents for cancer services, to minimise Covid-19 risk; patient information materials for those on treatment or with a history of cancer; development of novel service delivery mechanisms, such as a virtual national psychooncology service; a media campaign to combat decreased presentations with possible cancer and to reassure those currently on treatment; development of pre-surgical cocooning guidance and testing pathway; advocating for prioritisation of timesensitive cancer diagnosis and treatment, and the wider health & wellbeing needs of those cocooning; advocating for and supporting the implementation of priority vaccination for those undergoing cancer treatment. Cross-sectoral collaboration has been facilitated by existing networks and relationships, allowing rapid responses to be deployed and actioned. The leaner guidance development process employed during the pandemic enabled timely response. A two-way communication system with cancer services allowed swift cascade of information and gathering of intelligence which empowered action. Learning from the cancer setting was transferable to other high-risk groups. Key messages: • The potential impact of the pandemic on non-COVID care was far reaching, including at all stages of the cancer patient journey, from pre-diagnosis to living with or beyond cancer. • The programmatic approach to cancer control in Ireland facilitated concerted efforts to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the abstract of the study "Beyond Bismarck and Beveridge: Towards a Research Agenda for Health Systems Research," by Diana Delnoij presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003.

Background: Describing and assessing health systems is a challenging but essential task for researchers and policy makers striving to perform cross-country comparisons and to ensure evidencebased global health policy. The European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies has developed a template for country health system reviews (HiT) to systematically describe and assess health systems. To date, the HiT template has been used for countries in Europe, Asia and North America. This study reviews to what extent data for the indicators in the HiT template are available for the 47 countries of the WHO African Region. Methods: After identifying indicators in the HiT template, we explored the databases highlighted in the HiT template, as well as additional international and regional databases, to determine data availability. We extracted the country coverage and availability of indicators over time, noting gaps in data availability. Internationally available socio-demographic, macroeconomic, and mortality and health indicators were most frequently available for all 47 countries included in the study; data on the provision of services had the lowest availability. Data on human and physical resources and service provision had the most geographic and temporal variability. Information related to health system assessment, including issues around quality of care and access, if available, were geographically and temporally limited and found only in regional surveys or national sources. Conclusions: This project provides a comprehensive overview of health system-related data availability for the African Region. Regional or country group databases with regular updates, such as those managed by OECD and Eurostat, are less common in the African region, leading to a dearth of information. More work is needed to determine the most appropriate indicators and data sources for health system comparisons and assessments in the region. Key messages: We evaluated the data availability of health system indicators in the WHO African Region using indicators from the HiT template of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Socio-demographic, macroeconomic, and mortality indicators had highest availability for all 47 countries included in the study, while data on the provision of services had the lowest availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the past several decades, conflicting discourses have coexisted in the field of intersex studies, including the pathologizing discourse of the biomedical disciplines and the affirmative, subjective psychosocial discourse of people born with intersex bodies and their advocates. Intersex activists call for a positive discourse and a humanistic healthcare approach that accepts and protects intersex bodily autonomy and change the continuing harmful, traumatic treatments aimed at normalizing variations of sex characteristics (VSC). Methods: We created a collaborative German-Israeli action study, in with 30 health care professionals, intersex activists and scholars from Israel and Germany, were gathered to learn different perspectives on intersexuality, interact and work together on projects aim to improve the care for intersex people and families. Results: The participants created different collaborative projects, including ‘‘intersex workshops’’ for caregivers and professionals in Israel and Germany; unique materials for raising an awareness, e.g., booklets on intersex bodies with a positive and affirmative approach and language and an article for health care within the ultraorthodox Jewish community; parents’ groups and implementation of programs that aim to build bridges between biomedical professionals, caregivers, parents, and intersex people in Israel and Germany. Conclusions: The participants increased their knowledge and awareness of and sensitivity to intersex issues, and implemented these in their daily work and practices. The participants acknowledged the differences between the countries, especially in relation to the heightened Israeli use of assisted reproductive technology, which effect on the treatment practices, early genetic diagnosis and the preventive medical attitude. In Germany, more activism for intersex human rights and significant laws which regulate the medical treatment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work as a private primary health care practitioner with a special interest in older persons has been a rollercoaster ride over the course of the pandemic with the need to improvise, provide a wider form of care and an inordinate amount of role changing. The initial recommendation was to stay away from any possible cases which may have remotely resembled COVID with a view to keeping physicians and their practice safe. This message was unheard after the start of the second wave as the health services struggled to cope, testing became ever more accessible and patients who did develop COVID-19 needed someone to care for them when state services were overstretched. Meanwhile, the availability of all forms of specialist care grew ever scarcer in the community and increasingly caregivers such as myself realised that boundaries were now blurred under such circumstances. As hospital wards became taken up with exclusively COVID-19 patients, other hospital care delivery became on an urgent only basis and this had an effect on care in the community for patients living with chronic diseases. Physicians such as myself became ever more involved in caring for persons with mental illness and with the plethora of anxiety prevalent in a community burdened with a pandemic, an overabundance of morbid media coverage and social media feeding on fear and doubt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of studies on social and socio-demographic inequalities which were presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Health inequalities: Survey data compared to doctor defined data," by Gert P. Westert and Francois G. Schellevis; "Economic strain and health among lone mothers in Sweden 1979-1998," by Sara Ålander and Bo Burström; "Cultural differences in self-rated health in ethnic groups in the Netherlands," by W. Deville and G. Westert.

The article offers news briefs related to the organization European Public Health Association (EPHA). The tool called the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) has been developed for assessing the health impacts of policies, plans and projects in diverse economic sectors . The European Union (EU) has supported the member states by playing a vital role on public health. The Amsterdam 2010: Third European Public Health Conference will be held in Amsterdam, the New York City from November 10-13, 2010.

Presents abstracts of studies related to health and medicine which were presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Effects of virgin olive oil phenols on proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of tumor cell lines," by Roberto Fabiani, A. De Bartolomeo, P. Rosignoli, M. Servili, G.F. Montedoro and G. Morozzi; "Occurrence of organic chlorinated pollutants in seafood," by T. Cirillo, V. Viscardi, D. Perrone and R. Amodio Cocchieri; "Benzene outdoor and indoor pollution in Rome: Citizens exposure study," by Umberto Moscato, G. La Torre, F. La Torre and Ricciardi G.

Presents abstracts of studies on health care presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "An Excellence Award in health care," by G. Caracci, V. Fabio, C. Mantuano, A. Gangale, L. Casertano, F. Gillespie, P. Scansano and G. Guasticchi; "Health Care Reports and GIS adoption at community level: An analysis on three Italian local health units (LHUs)," by Alberto Zucchi, A.G. de Belvis and G. Ricciardi; "Patient status in the Romanian health care system," by Ana-Claudia Bara and Wim van den Heuvel.

Presents abstracts of studies on health service research which were presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Promoting clinical and organizational appropriateness of tonsillectomy in Italy," by E. Materia, G. Baglio, D. Canonaco, T. Jefferson, A. Mele, P. Marchisio, R. Di Domenicantonio and G. Guasticchi; "Hospital at home in an evidence based perspective: An opportunity for hospital changing in Europe," by G. Damiani, L. Pinnarelli, A. Cataldo and G. Ricciardi; "Results of the third panel survey on public use of, knowledge of, and perception of social and health services in Armenia," by Anna Grigoryan.

Presents abstracts of studies on public health issues on migrant and ethnic minorities which were presented at one of the parallel sessions during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Migrant-friendly hospitals: A European initiative to promote health and health literacy of migrants and ethnic minorities," by J.M. Pelikan, M. Juergen, K. Krajic, B. Schulze and U. Trummer; "Deteriorating health satisfaction among immigrants from Eastern Europe to Germany," by U. Ronellenfitsch and O. Razum; "Quality or cost-containment in health care for asylum seekers?" by L. Toscani, K. Mouzoune, O. Lampert, L. Muggah and L. Loutah.

Presents abstracts of studies on health service research presented at a parallel session during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Practice guidelines, Did they reduce medical practice variation?" by J.D. De Jong, G.P. Westert, F. Schellevis and P.P. Groenewegen; "Flexible and mobile doctors as a strategy for capacity problems," by P. Heiligers and N. Van der Vange; "Who is responsible for metropolitan health systems: The limitations of managed competition," by T. Plochg, D.M.J. Delnoij and N.S. Klazinga.

Presents abstracts of studies on public health issues in migrant ethnic minorities and refugees which were presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Time trends in AIDS incidence among immigrants in Italy," by L. Cacciani, A. Rosano, S. Boros, L. Camoni, A. Colucci, G. Guasticchi, G. Rezza, R. Urciuoli, G. Baglio and P. Pezzotti; "Recruitment and follow up of ethnic minority patients in clinical studies," by Liselotte Visser and Paul Uitewaal; "The status of health and health-behavior of the adult Roma population in Hungary," by Kinga Lampek and M. Törcsik.

Presents abstracts of studies related to public health which were presented at one of the parallel sessions during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Trends in development of CAM practitioners in UK and Germany," by S. Weinbrenner, A. Riesberg, A. Dixon, O. Saka, J. LeGrand and R. Busse; "Children leukemia as cause of family separation," by G. Varchetta, M. Esposito, G. Messina, F. Lofiego and N. Nante; "Organized breast cancer screening program in a liberal system: The example of the French community, Belgium," by M. Puddu and A. Vandenbroucke.

Presents abstracts of studies dealing with informed patients and use of health services which were presented at one of the parallel sessions during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Does educational level play a role in determining length of hospital stay?" by L. Rossi, L. Cacciani, G. Baglio, G. Guasticchi and E. Materia; "A large proportion of Swedish citizens refrain from seeking medical care: Lack of confidence in the medical services a plausible explanation," by M. Westin, A. Åhs and R. Westerling; "Informed patients: Legal fiction or reality?" by A. Van den Brink-Muinen, S. Van Dulmen and J. Bensing.

Presents abstracts of studies on health care which were presented at one of the parallel sessions during the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "The health of nations: How much is attributable to health care?" by E. Nolte and M. McKee; "Health care costs in the last year of life," by J.J. Polder, G.J. Kommer and J.A.M. Van Oers; "Preferences for curative and preventive health care," by W.J. Meerding, M. Stuifbergen and M.L. Essink-Bot.

Presents abstracts of studies related to health services research presented at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Public Health Association in November 2003. "Introductory lecture: Studies of integrated in an international perspective," by Ingrid Mur-Veeman; "Using pooled budgets to integrate welfare systems: A comparison of collaboration between health services, social services and social insurance in England and Sweden," by Eva-Lisa Hultberg, Knut Lonnroth, Peter Allebeck and Caroline Glendinning; "The Local Health Systems (LHS) project in Belgium," by J.P. Unger, B. Criel, S. Dugas, J. Van der Vennet and M. Roland.