How Europe is Making its Healthcare Systems Future-proof

With a population of over 447 million people spread across 27 countries, the European Union faces complex challenges to ensure high-quality healthcare for all its citizens now and in the future. Increasing pressure on healthcare services due to an aging population, rising numbers of chronic diseases, medical supply shortages, and a healthcare workforce shortage emphasize the need for sustainable and future-proof healthcare across Europe.

In this blog post, we identify initiatives that aim to improve the healthcare system(s) by promoting cross-border healthcare while ensuring patient privacy and security.

Horizon 2020 & Horizon Europe

Once the most substantial funding program of the European Union for research and innovation, Horizon 2020 officially terminated at the end of 2020 but the results of research funded by the program are expected to influence healthcare for many years to come. Currently, a new program, called Horizon Europe, has a budget of over €95 billion to promote excellence in science, innovations, competitiveness, and global challenges. In addition, more than €8 billion is directly targeting healthcare challenges. Both funding programs are the backbone for other, more targeted EU programs or initiatives.

Digital healthcare-related initiatives

Digital Health solutions have seen a push in recent years after an exponential adaptation phase triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Various EU initiatives are focused on aligning different digital health solutions to make sure that each country is not trying to reinvent the wheel by itself. These initiatives often aim to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare in Europe by leveraging the potential of digital technologies.

Digital Health Europe is an initiative that aims to accelerate the development and implementation of digital health solutions across Europe by supporting the deployment of digital health solutions in three areas: person-centered care, connecting and sharing health data, and healthy living and active aging. In addition, the initiative provides funding, expertise, and support to digital health innovators, healthcare providers, and other stakeholders to develop and scale their solutions. One of the critical outcomes of this initiative is a set of guidelines and standards for the implementation and interoperability of health ICT.

Also focused on a set of common standards, the eHealth Network is a voluntary group established by the EU to support cooperation and the exchange of best practices between the national authorities responsible for eHealth in EU countries, as well as the European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland. The network also supports the implementation of the EU eHealth Action Plan and the EU Digital Single Market Strategy. The eHealth Action Plan promotes the development of digital solutions that can improve the quality of healthcare, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. The plan focuses on issues such as the exchange of electronic health records (EHRs), the interoperability of health information systems, and standards for health data exchange. It is correct that this last sentence sounds like a repeat of the tasks of the Digital Health Europe initiatives because various EU initiatives work either in parallel or together on similar goals. Similarly, the European Health Data Space was created by the EU to form a shared digital infrastructure through which health data could move safely across borders, to enhance individual care and collaborative research in the European Health Union.

Together with other stakeholders in the European digital health scene, the Innovative Health Initiative launched the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data to make better use of accumulated health data and see how reusing data can accompany and support new research.

To summarize, any potential digital healthcare solutions should be fitted to align with the Digital Single Market Strategy, which is much broader than the healthcare sector, as it is created to make every sector in Europe fit for the digital age, which requires tearing down unnecessary regulatory barriers and moving from individual national markets to one single EU-wide market.

Emergency preparedness and supply shortages

The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented consequences painfully pointed out shortcomings in the event of medical emergencies. Therefore, the European Commission launched the Health Emergency Preparedness Response Authority (HERA).HERA aims to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. In case of future pandemics, HERA will oversee the development, production, and distribution of medicines, vaccines, and medical equipment. The aim is to ensure adequate and equal emergency measures across the EU, whilst limiting public tensions between countries. Furthermore, HERA has expressed the need for a digital platform covering many emergency preparedness segments. It recently called for tenders to create the Advanced Technology for Health Intelligence and Action IT System (ATHINA) with a nearly €24 million budget.

Also, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe plan was launched. The overall goal of this strategy is to ensure affordable access to medicines, both in ‘normal’ times and during emergencies. This should be achieved mainly by reforming EU pharmaceutical legislation on various aspects of the pharmaceutical sector, including research and development, availability and affordability of medicines, and supply chain resilience. Since this strategy targets legislation changes that influence many other EU health initiatives, these alterations must be aligned with the broader tasks and aims of the EU health system.

Yet another EU initiative that was launched as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic is the EU4Health Programme 2021-2027. With a budget of €5.3 billion, this program targets many sectors of EU healthcare systems outside the scope of emergency preparedness, such as cancer prevention, promoting healthy living practices, and implementing evidence-based decision-making. Given its large budget and broad spectrum, it collaborates with many other EU projects and programs.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) plays a crucial role in addressing medicine shortages within the European Union. Although the responsibility for managing medicine shortages primarily lies with individual EU member states, the EMA supports their efforts by providing guidance, facilitating information exchange, and coordinating actions at the European level.

It does this by keeping track of reported national medicine shortages and rapidly responding to identified supply chain difficulties. The agency guides appropriate mitigation measures and alternative treatments.

In some cases where a shortage occurs due to a specific manufacturing or quality issue, the EMA can provide regulatory flexibility to expedite the resolution of the problem. This may include fast-track assessment of manufacturing changes and temporary importation of medicines from non-EU countries.

Addressing the health gap in Europe

Regional differences in healthcare quality and availability can be enormous across Europe. Therefore, many of the before mentioned initiatives face another challenge: increasing health equality rather than enhancing the health gap between regions. The EU Regional Development Fund also has projects aimed at overcoming regional differences in access to healthcare, such as the EU Smart Health Age-Friendly Environments, which provides insights into how to adjust cities and urban environments more to the health and mobility needs of an aging population.

Additionally, health inequalities are not only seen between regions but also within communities. For example, socio-economic factors, such as digital literacy, can influence access to healthcare. Therefore, all these mentioned EU initiatives, especially those focusing on digital health, must be wary of introducing innovations that are only accessible to tech-savvy patients.

Legislation and procurement

We have written extensively about changes in European legislation related to healthcare and recently published a thought piece on the challenges of pharmaceutical procurement within Europe. Legislation changes focus on responsibilities across the supply chain, clinical regulation, value-based procurement, and the need for sustainability and a lower environmental impact

An example that emphasizes the responsibility of companies in the supply chain is the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (called LkSG in Germany) which requires companies of more than 3000 employees to be more responsible for ensuring human rights along the supply chain (per 2024, this act will also include smaller companies of over 1,000 employees).

Various EU countries have declared the need for more sustainable practices in the healthcare sector during COP27 because if the global healthcare sector was viewed as a country, it would be the 5th largest carbon-emitting country in the world. Among the actions being taken is the Greener NHS in the UK, which aims to create the world’s first net-zero healthcare system by 2040. This requires their suppliers to be open about their targets to move towards a lower carbon footprint.

Most clinical trials in the EU must now align with Clinical Trial Regulation 536/2014 (EU-CTR). It became evident that medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices that are subject to increased regulation under the Medical Device Regulation 2017/745 and 2017/746, could result in medical device shortages in the EU market. Therefore, the EU has recently amended the transition period to give manufacturers more time to adhere to the regulations.

Value-based procurement has become more critical in the healthcare sector in Europe. An increasing number of countries are creating guidelines that focus on relevant factors in addition to pricing, such as environmental, societal, and potential long-term consequences of a medical product or service. This process is both driven by legislation (such as the net-zero policy of a Greener NHS) and the need to ensure more financial sustainability and future-preparedness within the sector. The EU project European-wide Innovative Procurement of Health and Care Innovation (EURIPHI) that ended in June 2020 has created a framework for public healthcare organizations to procure innovative health products and services effectively, efficiently, and sustainably.

Here at Vamstar, we understand the needs and challenges of procuring European healthcare products and services. Since its founding in 2019, Vamstar has used artificial intelligence on its exchange platform to successfully connect the best matches of healthcare buyers and suppliers to fulfill tenders. Value-based procurement plays a central role on our platform and helps select various price and non-price factors that are becoming increasingly essential. As a result, we firmly believe we can help make the European healthcare sector’s supply chain future-proof.

Sign-up to subscribe

Contact

Materials

Newsroom