By Agnieszka Daval
On 27-28 February the European Commission held for the 6th time the Conference of Partners of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Health Ageing (EIP on AHA), with some 350 participants, including EHFF. Next to a stock-taking exercise, the objective was to connect dots between the activities of EIP, Digital Single Market and the three axes of an imminent Communication on Digital Transformation of Health and Care, i.e. 1. Enable citizens´ secure access to electronic health records and e-prescriptions and the possibility to share them across borders; 2. Advance research, disease prevention and personalized health and care in key areas by enabling access to data sets and medical expertise across borders, and 3. Promote widespread uptake of digital tools to facilitate patient feedback and better interaction/ cooperation between citizens and healthcare providers, leading to better health care services and empowered citizens.
The participants debated how to take the AIP to a next step in this context. No doubt that the AIP generated wide movement and mobilized local resources, however, how to capitalize on it for the benefit of citizens and health systems is not obvious yet at this stage. Looking forward to the conclusions by the organizers and the EU action plan on digital health!