Public consultation on Health and Care in the Digital Single Market

The idea behind this public consultation is to see how Europe should promote digital innovation in health and care, for the benefit of citizens and health systems in Europe. The input will feed into a new policy Communication to be adopted by the end of 2017, as announced in the recent review of the Commission's Digital Single Market strategy.

The consultation will collect information on three main pillars:

1. Citizens' secure access to their health data and the possibility to share it across borders, clarifying citizens' rights and enhancing interoperability of electronic health records in Europe;

2. Connecting and sharing data and expertise to advance research, personalise health and care, and better anticipate epidemics;

3. Using digital services to promote citizen empowerment and integrated person-centred care.

Details

• Citizens, patient organisations, health and care professionals, public authorities, researchers, industries, investors, insurers and users of digital health tools.
• The consultation period is 20 July-12 October 2017.
• Participation is possible viaEU Survey. 

Background

• Demographic change, growing prevalence of chronic diseases, re-emergence of infectious diseases and the rising cost of healthcare poses major challenges for healthcare provisions in Europe. The Communication on effective, accessible and resilient health systemsconcluded that the Member States' future ability to provide high-quality healthcare to all citizens will depend on making health systems more resilient, while remaining cost-effective and financially sustainable.
• Digital innovation can offer cost-effective tools to support the transition from a hospital-based healthcare model to a person-centred and integrated model, improve health promotion, prevention and access to care, and contribute to the sustainability and resilience of healthcare systems.
• The recentDigital Single Market Mid-term Reviewtackles these issues. It proposes that the Commission addresses the need and scope for measures on digital health and care, in line with legislation on the protection of personal data, patient rights and electronic identification.

As computer modeling and simulation has a tremendous potential for healthcare, this public consultation could be yet another way of showing its advantages and also of signalling that the current EU policy framework doesn’t fit the purpose.