The EU campaigning for better, digital healthcare - Hoofdinhoud
Our health system is under constant pressure: the conditions it deals with are increasingly chronic and degenerative; ever busier doctors face ever more stretched resources. That people today are living longer is positive news, and thanks to a high-quality and dedicated medical sector. But it also creates new challenges, and calls for new changes. The answer may lie in eHealth - using digital technology for health and wellbeing.
To embed those new tools into our healthcare system, we need to work together. Today I met some of the people who are doing that.
In particular, I met 32 European cities and regions who are really putting innovative ideas into practice: some of the so-called “Reference Sites” taking part in our European Innovation Partnership. And they gave me some very impressive stories: how they are using creative technological, social and organisational ideas to really make a difference for older people. And there’s some great examples on show - from lower admission rates in Scotland to electronic health records in Galicia.
Those innovations deserve to be recognised and rewarded. And particularly because, crucially, the leading regions are taking the trouble to share their achievements and knowledge across Europe: brilliant news. So this is most of all a big win for citizens across Europe. And if you want to know how this project is going in your part of Europe, or you want to see what others are up to, check out our pdf brochure here .
Congratulations to all: and keep up the good work! But it’s clear to me that individual disruptive innovations aren’t enough - they must be widespread and embedded. Now it’s time to do that: it’s time to take those individual bright ideas and use them to light up the whole healthcare system. They we can really transform our world, with better care for all.
This Innovation Partnership is just one way in which the European Commission is supporting eHealth. But, as I highlighted in a recent blog for medical website Artsennet (in Dutch), we are also looking into areas like:
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-How doctors across Europe use ICT. It turns out that, even though most doctors spend much of their day behind a PC, they rarely use it to stay in touch with patients. Even though so-called “telemedicine” has a lot of advantages: like easier access (really important for, say, chronically ill patients in remote areas); savings in time and costs (as making appointments, sharing lab reports, etc become more efficient); safer for patients with a more visible process for all GPs and specialists; and so on.
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-At European level we are working to get digital health services “interoperable”, and resolving legal issues, like on patient privacy. The EU sets out high privacy safeguards: for example that medical data can only be processed by health professionals bound by confidentiality; only with the patient’s explicit consent; doctors must explain why data are being shared and with whom; and - very importantly - patients themselves must have access to their own data. Those rules are good ones: but they’re applied differently and inconsistently in each Member State - making it harder to get digital benefits. So the Commission has proposed more regularisation at European level.
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-Plus, many of us enjoy “apps” for health and wellbeing - so called “mHealth” (the m is for “mobile”). Those can be a great way for people to get empowered to take control of their own healthcare: often in very direct and simple ways. In our eHealth Action Plan we set out plans for a Green Paper on the huge potential of this sector: I’d like to start a discussion with EU countries about the opportunities — how about (for example) codes of conduct for health app makers?
We are all getting older. And many of us worry what that will mean - who will care for us, and how. At the same time, digital tools offer us a huge opportunity for change. I’m glad that the EU is taking action to make the most of that - and use new technology to make a real difference.
Last week’s European Council discussed the crucial topic of youth unemployment. That’s an important subject - but to me it’s clear innovation is the key to fixing this problem, including innovation through digital technology. Healthcare innovation in particular offers the chance of a double win: helping young people, boosting the economy for a job-rich recovery; and helping the elderly too through better healthcare.
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