The 2019 IEEE International Conference on E-health Networking, Application & Services (HealthCom) was held in Bogota, Colombia 14–16 October 2019. The conference was jointly organized by the IEEE Communications Society and IEEE Colombian Communications Society Chapter.
HealthCom 2019 attracted attendees from 12 different countries around the world to exchange ideas, discuss innovative and emerging solutions, and develop collaborations in the healthcare field. Also, it is important to remark the presence of four selected keynote speakers.
Our first keynote was Dr. José García-Tirado, a Colombian researcher who works at the Center for Diabetes Technology (CDT)–University of Virginia. Dr Garcia delivered the speech entitled “Exercise-safe Artificial Pancreas for Adults with Type 1 Diabetes using a Model Predictive Controller with Behavior Recognition.” This lecture addressed the design of an exercise-tolerant artificial pancreas (AP) for blood glucose (BG) stabilization and hypoglycemia prevention in people with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) with detectable patterns of exercise.
The second keynote was by Joel Rodrigues, a professor at the Federal University of Piauí, Brazil, and senior researcher at the Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal. Prof. Rodrigues presented topics related to “e-Health and Mobile Health Technologies.”
The second day of keynotes was open by Eng. Cayo Betancourt, who works at Ericsson and has over 18 years of professional experience in the telecommunications sector. Eng. Betancourt currently is responsible for coordinating and directing an extensive digital transformation program. His lecture was entitled “5G and Health Care.”
Finally, Dr. Roberto Saracco, chair of the Future Directions Committee of the IEEE, his presented his lecture entitled “Digital Transformation: Its Leverage and Impact on Healthcare.” Dr. Saracco received a special attention from the conference attendees.
In addition to the regular sessions, attendees shared in social events, some scheduled and others not, like the five-minute salsa lesson given by one of the session chairs during a coffee break. We had the opportunity to have the gala dinner in a typical Colombia venue with very traditional music from the Caribbean region (vallenatos).
The next HealthCom will be held 12–15 December 2020 in Shenzhen, China.