Vision on the future of healthcare at the European Health Summit

Among a long list of policy makers and health stakeholders, Director General Roberto Viola of DG CONNECT of the European Commission attended the Health Summit. The EU Health Summit is a multi-stakeholder event organised from within and across the health community that seeks to bring together European leaders, policy makers and health stakeholders to discuss how Europe could develop and take the lead in areas such as research and innovation, health data and digital health, healthcare organisation and financing as well as health in all policies. The aim of the Summit was to distil recommendations for the next European Commission and European Parliament to bring the necessary changes about.

DG CONNECT Director General Roberto Viola:

• Underlined the work done by the Commission and the EU Member States, in exploring how the new and emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence and high performing computing, can be harnessed to improve the health and care of EU citizens in sustainable way. 
  
• Emphasised the need for digital transformation of healthcare and therefore crucial role that high-performance computers play in view of making this sector financially sustainable.
  
• Highlighted that need for every European citizen to have an electronic health record in order to facilitate the exchange of health data across Europe.
  
• Stressed the work done by the European Commission in enabling the digital transformation of health and care in the EU and explained that the Commission's policies and research are well aligned with the needs of patients, citizens and health and care professionals.
  

Recommendations for digital health drawn up for the next European Parliament and European Commission:

1. Invest in and support the implementation of evidence-based programmes for prevention;
   
2. Support the implementation of standardised measurements of health outcomes and healthy life years;
   
3. Identify and spread best practices in medical practice and care pathways;
   
4. Strengthen work on monitoring and assessing the performance of health and social care systems;
   
5. Support health system reform and capacity building;
   
6. Establish a Forum for Better Access to Health Innovation;
   
7. Ensure better access for patients to cross-border healthcare;
   
8. Support evidence-based care at scale by building on the European Reference Networks and supporting European registries;
   
9. Establish a European health education programme for healthcare professionals and citizens;
   
10. Facilitate multi-stakeholder partnerships with regions and cities;
    
11. The European Commission should have a Vice-President for health to ensure effective coordination and leadership at high level;
    
12. Implement knowledge transfer and twinning programmes to implement integrated, person-centred care throughout Europe;
    
13. Support people with chronic conditions in the workplace;
    
14. Establish a Steering Board for Health to ensure optimal coordination of research activities;
    
15. Increase and ring-fence the budget for health research;
    
16. Further the collaboration of public and private sectors in health research;
    
17. Assessment of funded health research programmes;
    
18. Establish a European Health Data Institute to produce a range of health data to inform the work of policymakers, researchers, industry and healthcare providers;
    
19. A European Digital Platform should be created to facilitate accountability for health data use and consent management;
    
20. Ensure eHealth interoperability across the continuum of care.