ehealth action in the EU ehealth for smart and inclusive growth 13 February 2014 Jerome Boehm DG SANCO ehealth and Health Technology Assessment
General Health Objectives of the EU cooperation on ehealth Patients empowerment Access to healthcare Quality and safety of healthcare Continuity of healthcare Sustainability of health systems Cooperation & improvement of health research 2
Directive on patients' rights in crossborder care 2012 Implementing act on prescriptions: minimum data to be shared across borders (Art 11). Paving the way to eprescription guidelines, scheduled 2014 European Reference Network (Art 12): telemedicine as a tool ehealth Network (Art 14) Data to be included in patients summaries; adopted November 2013 Collection of medical info for public health and research; Identification & authentication measures to facilitate transferability of data in cross-border healthcare
Other key EU initiatives ehealth action plan 2012/2020 COM 2012/736: Achieving wider interoperability of ehealth services Supporting research, development and innovation in ehealth and wellbeing Facilitating uptake and ensuring wider deployment, at national and cross border levels Promoting international cooperation Regulation on standardisation 1025/2012 An ICT Standardisation Platform is set up to promote dialogue between Commission, Member States, all stakeholders and standard setting organisations; Objective: Evaluation and Identification of technical specifications for interoperability The technical specifications can be used by Member States in public procurement
Other key EU initiatives EC proposal on regulation for data protection COM 2012/11 to protect the fundamental right to data protection to guarantee the free flow of personal data between Member States to ensure data protection in a globalised digital world to strike the right balance between data protection rights and the need to support public health and medical research objectives EC upcoming green paper on mhealth and health/ wellbeing apps Contextual elements (state of play, definition, etc); Current regulatory framework (EU and global); What needs to be changed for mhealth to succeed; Options for regulation
Other key EU initiatives The Connecting Europe Facility proposal COM 2011/665 A common infrastructure fund to deploy interconnected transport, energy and digital networks which combines market based instruments and EU direct support Total budget for broadband & electronic services for the public: 1 bio, instead of 9 bio initially, for 2014/2020 CEF could support implementation of large scale cross-border ehealth services and connecting infrastructures Study on legal aspects of electronic health records: December 2013 How national laws on electronic health records, e.g. on eprescriptions, interact with cross-border exchange of ehealth data and services (identify differences, potential barriers or needs for EU initiatives for enhancing secure cross-border ehealth data exchange) Will build on previous studies and EPSOS experience
ehealth and Horizon 2020 R&I Programmes: Between 2008 and 2013 1 billion (ehealth only) Horizon 2020: Between 2014 and 2020 7.472 billion* in Societal Challenge 1 (whole Health programme) Horizon 2020: Between 2014 and 2015 1.200 billion* in Societal Challenge 1 from which about 15% ICT related R&D&I All funding figures in this presentation are subject to the pending Multiannual Financial Framework Regulation by the EP and the Council
ehealth and Horizon 2020 Topic area: 'Health, demographic change and wellbeing' is the 1 st topic of Societal Challenges 7 Sub-topics: Understanding health, ageing and disease; Effective health promotion, disease prevention, preparedness and screening; Improving diagnosis; Innovative treatments and technologies; Advancing active and healthy ageing; ICT Integrated, sustainable and citizen centred care; Improving health information, data exploitation, and providing regulation.
ehealth and Horizon 2020 ehealth projects : Test and demonstrate new models and tools for health and care delivery support the translation of findings into the clinic and other health and care settings to: improve health outcomes, reduce health inequalities, promote active and healthy ageing.
Challenges at EU and national levels Interoperability: technical, legal and semantic; to be addressed by the ehealth network and the platform on standardisation. Don't build walls and silos at national level Costs of investment: more converging evidence is needed on impact for healthcare systems and patients benefits + QoL. HTA bodies should work on that at EU level. Trust and acceptability by health professionals and patients. A number of EU initiatives, on data protection and security
Recommendations for Bulgaria Need of a well-established health strategy, as a precondition for access to the structural funds (ex-ante conditionality criteria) Need of an action plan of this strategy before planning the investments needed Adoption of EU standards for interoperability should guide the investments on ehealth Continuous and strong involvement in EU initiatives, such as joint actions and the ehealth Network
1. Definition ehealth 2. Why EU cooperation? 3. EU instruments 4. Conclusions Conclusions Commission: ehealth is essential for efficient and sustainable health systems We need interoperable systems to bear the fruits of ehealth solutions (Single Digital Market) Health sector to be involved in regulations on standardisation, egovernance, data-protection, etc.