Brussels, 1 – 5 June 2026
Digital Health at the Crossroads: Balancing Progress and Individual Rights
Joint project of HALL (Brussels) and EKFZ (Dresden) within the EUTOPIA Alliance
The digital transformation of healthcare is unlocking unprecedented opportunities for economic growth and scientific advancement, but it also raises urgent questions about how to safeguard individual rights and public interest. How can we harness the power of digital health innovation while ensuring ethical governance, legal compliance, and equitable access? The HALL-EKFZ Summer School 2026 is designed to explore these tensions and identify pathways to resolve them.
Building on the success of the 2024 Brussels and the 2025 Dresden editions, we are thrilled to bring the Summer School back to Brussels for its third iteration. This year’s program, “Digital Health at the Crossroads: Balancing Progress and Individual Rights”, will gather leading scholars, policymakers, industry experts, and practitioners of the field. Together, we will dissect the complexities of digital health and collaborate on solutions that balance progress with protection.
Program Outline
The Summer School features six intensive modules, each comprising at least two sessions dedicated to a core theme:
- Health Data for Research and Innovation: Balancing Progress and Privacy
- Cybersecurity in Healthcare: Safeguarding Innovation
- AI and Intellectual Property in Healthcare: Navigating Governance and Liability
- Mental Health and Well-Being: Ethical Design and Regulation
- Medical Technology Design and Development: From Innovation to Market
- Resilience in Public Health: Preparing for Future Crises
This structure ensures a deep dive into the most critical issues at the intersection of innovation and rights, providing participants with actionable insights and a comprehensive understanding of the field.
Why should you attend?
The Summer School is committed to fostering a diverse and interdisciplinary dialogue. Lectures will be conducted in English, and participants who successfully complete the program and pass the assessment will receive a Certificate of Participation, which can be awarded with 4 ECTS credits. Join us in Brussels to engage with global experts, share perspectives, and contribute to resolving the conflicts at the heart of digital health innovation!
You want to join?
Partner
This Summer school is a collaboration between the EKFZ for Digital Health at TUD Dresden University of Technology and HALL, the Health and Ageing Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
The Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health at TUD Dresden University of Technology and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden was established in September 2019. It receives funding of around 40 million euros from the Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation for a period of ten years. The center focuses its research activities on innovative, medical and digital technologies at the direct interface with patients. The aim is to fully exploit the potential of digitalization in medicine to significantly and sustainably improve healthcare, medical research and clinical practice.
The Health and Ageing Law Lab (HALL) is a team of researchers who specialize in themes linked to matters of health and ageing. In particular, its members conduct research in multi-disciplinary areas such as privacy and data protection; use of advanced technologies in healthcare, pharmaceutical development and research; e-Health and m-Health; and healthy ageing. It is a subgroup of the Interdisciplinary Research group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and hosts the annual HELT [Health, Law, and Technology] Symposium in Brussels.