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Digital Health, Wellbeing and Smart Specialisation

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On November 18th, the AER Digital Health Network hosted the webinar Digital Health, Wellbeing, and Smart Specialisation.

The webinar was moderated by Donna Henderson, Chair of AER Digital Health Network. It showcased the experiences of two AER in supporting the development of digital solutions that underpin healthy living and foster collaboration between the public sector, universities, civil organisations, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Kenneth Johannesson, Vice President for Health Innovation of the AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health opened the webinar by stating that new forms of innovation in digitalisation are necessary to offer more proactive, personal, patient well-being oriented and cost-effective care.

The benefits provided by the digitalisation of services, he explained, such as virtual visits, patient portals, electronic medical records, early disease detection, and better management of chronic conditions contribute to increasing patients’ safety and deployong a competitive healthcare system.

What to do?
Place-based approaches and International Collaboration!

Anders Olsson, Manager of Research and Innovation at the Värmland Department of Regional Growth (SE), noted how the model to foster Smart Specialisation Strategies and the collaboration with the University of Karlstad are instrumental for the regional’ innovation system development.

Existing regional assets are tested, managed, developed, and used to create valuable services for users and society:

  • Forest-based bio-economy specialisation derives from the region’s strong production of paper, packaging, and tissue.
  • The competitive position in testing and developing complex IT systems and the funds given for 10 years from the national innovation authority INNOVA are strong assets for the development of the Digitalisation of Welfare services
  • The high-quality steel industry present in the region allows the support of the Advanced Manufacturing & Complex Systems sector

Mr. Olson stressed the importance of the cooperation agreement with the Karlstad Academy for Smart Specialisation which transforms and renews the private and public sector in Värmland and strengthens research and education across the Universities.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, the new ambition is a well-developed and safe IT environment where the focus is on the human aspect, through testing services with real users, and designing new and better solutions.


Linda Murray, Director of Strategy at Scottish Enterprise then presented Scotland’s broad innovation ecosystem, which brings together government, universities, institutions, civil societies groups, innovation centres, and small-medium enterprises, as well as some more local actors through a joined-up approach.

The priority in light of the Brexit, she noted, is to foster even more international cross-agency collaborations and sustainable linkages between regional innovation ecosystems to develop an inclusive, fair, sustainable, and self-reliant economy and develop new innovative solutions. 

Scotland has contributed to the work on Smart Specialisation in Europe from an early stage and plays a lead role in 3 pilot projects of the Vanguard initiative – a platform where European partners can work to deliver shared aspirations for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.

Ms. Murray stressed the importance of continuing to influence an open environment because Regional innovation ecosystems can and do develop solutions for significant common societal challenges while improving international competitiveness.

How can be achieved an innovative Digital Health ecosystem?

Magnus Bårdén, Process Leader at the innovation cluster DigitalWell Arena, Region Värmland, Sweden, presented the process of how to establish a trusty ecosystem that creates innovative digital health services.

In this context, the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA started the programme VINNVÄXT which brings together the public sector, stakeholders, and different service research centers, to establish a health arena by creating, developing, and testing innovative digital health services.

We have to test, before we invest!

Mr. Bårdén, explained the importance of using an approach based on user perspective to build competence for innovation on health and wellbeing focused on individual’s need. In this context, the health arena in Värmland concentrates the activities in a smaller community, by testing new, digital, and innovative ways of ensuring an equal, safe, and inclusive health ecosystem.

Let’s shift the balance of care!

Prof George Crooks, CEO, Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, Glasgow, sets out the approach that refocuses the balance of care and mobilise innovative digital health services, especially in the post-pandemic.

The collaboration with the Scottish government has allowed identifying the key priorities where concentrates more efforts through an innovation process model based on a partnership of collaboration. In this context, joining the forces in co-designing new ways of developing, testing, and sharing innovative digital health services is instrumental to achieve the best outcomes.

Prof Crooks, therefore, presented the Demonstration & Simulation Environment as a best practice from the region, a physical platform where exchange, experience, learn and create new ways to support preventive, co-managed, and predictive care.

The concept behind is to allow citizens to be empowered to access services at their own term and be the point of data integration, to achieve it, solutions need to be flexible to develop digital tools focusing the balance of care to prevention, detection, and independent living.

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Join the Digital Health Network!

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The Digital Health Network provides a platform for AER regions to learn from each other on this very current topic. It is open to all regions willing to improve their digital health strategies. Regions will share their experiences, knowledge, and resources that support the effective deployment of digital health solutions within their regional healthcare systems. The Digital Health Network is chaired by Scotland.

Transforming health & care

The digital transformation of health and care requires further action in these areas:

  • citizen’s secure access to and sharing of health data across borders;
  • better data to advance research, disease prevention and personalised health and care;
  • digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centred care.

Exchange of knowledge & experiences

The exchange of knowledge is crucial to support the implementation and sustainable transformation of digitally enabled health and care services.  The Digital Health Network will:

  • Provide knowledge exchange opportunities for AER regions working to implement digital health.
  • Promote relevant policies to advance the implementation of digital health for all citizens.
  • Share good practices in the use of digital health in response to key health and care challenges for regions. 
  • Recognise the diversity of regions and identify key lessons from their different approaches to digital health.
  • Develop our shared understanding of how digital health can support increased citizen participation in and self-management of their own health and wellbeing.
  • Identify key events, in which members of the Digital Health Network will participate, to promote and raise awareness of the Network’s activities.

Network Activities for 2020-21

After the success of events such as the breakfast seminar on innovation in healthcare design, and the mutual learning event on ‘Digital Transformation in Healthcare: Regional Perspective for Integrated Care’ at Smart City Expo in 2019, The Digital Health Network is organising a series of new activities for 2020-21

The proposed activities being planned for the Network in 2020 – 2021 are outlined in the roadmap below. These activities will be a blend of online and in-person events and will be planned and coordinated with the full participation and support from AER regions.

Proposed knowledge exchange topics for 2020-21

  • Digital health tools in the response to COVID-19: lessons learned from AER regions and plans for the future
    • digital health tools to support recovery and rehabilitation: focus on physical rehabilitation
    • digital health tools to support recovery: focus on mental health and well being
  • Regions experience in citizen participation approaches to deliver sustainable digital health services
  • Capacity building to support the implementation of digital health

For more information on the upcoming activities of the AER Digital Health Network and to join the network, visit the Digital Health Network’s webpage

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

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An Injection of Reality at AER Breakfast Seminar on Digital and Healthcare Innovation

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Innovating is always an ambitious goal but there is much to be learned from one another. The Breakfast Seminar on “Innovation in Healthcare Design – what have we learned?” is a perfect example of mutual learning. On Tuesday 10 September, AER hosted an insightful seminar organised in partnership with its members, Region Värmland (SE) and the Scottish Government TEC and Digital Healthcare Innovation Division.  

The breakfast seminar was an opportunity to highlight a European perspective on digital healthcare innovation and subsequently, look more specifically at the Swedish and Scottish experiences. The seminar gave all participants the opportunity to discuss this relevant and ever-present issue and to interact with regions who have already made strides in digital transformation.

A nutritious Nordic breakfast marked the beginning of the event as Kenneth Johannesson, AER Committee on Social Policy and Public Health and Councillor from the Region Värmland and Donna Henderson from the Scottish Government gave a warm introduction to the topic at hand and the invited expert speakers.

In Integration We Trust

Filip Domanski, from the European Commission, was first to take the floor as he explained the EU strategy for digital and healthcare innovation. He emphasised that joint action is needed in order to transform healthcare and that an exchange of failures is as useful as the exchange of good practices. Integration and digitisation are at the heart of the Commission’s strategy, he highlighted the importance of two projects co-financed by the European Commission: SCIROCCO and VIGOUR. Both projects will support health and social care authorities to improve the patient’s experience by improving the integration of health and care services. AER’s involvement in the SCIROCCO project is to be commended.

Ever Heard of “Service Logic”?

By entering the core of the topic, Tomas Edman, Coordinator of the Experio Lab Sweden, shifted the attention to the approach adopted in Sweden. He introduced the concept of ‘Service Logic’, which means that value is created in the meeting between the patient and the healthcare services. Patients, therefore, are an important resource for the development and use of healthcare services. He argued that this kind of systematic shift is essential to really transform healthcare services instead of merely digitising it. According to Edman, the only thing that has to be contagious is a user-centric approach – involving citizens will help to build an effective and replicable prototype.

Care 4.0 – Let’s Think Digital

With the contribution of George Crooks, Professor and CEO at the Digital Health and Care Institute from Scotland, the debate moved to the Scottish approach for digital health. Professor Crooks stressed that an effective transformation in the health sector requires, obviously, more time than a Parliamentary mandate, therefore, it is fundamental to achieve a citizen-driven method. Reflecting on the practices employed around the EU, Scotland has managed to design an effective strategy to improve their health system and guarantee safe, effective and patient-centred services.

The Breakfast Seminar gave participants the opportunity to broaden their horizons and learn more about their counterparts’ strategies as regards healthcare. The key takeaway was that a patient-centred method might be the best, but in order to improve the overall situation, all public services have to change their approach, not solely the healthcare system. 

Thanks to the input of the Region Värmland and the Scottish Government TEC and Digital Health Care Innovation Division, we can say that the Breakfast Seminar was successful, AER’s aim, however, is to organise more events similar to this one and to involve more and more policymakers, civil servants and experts with the intention of creating not only seminars but fruitful meetings of minds. 

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Optimum healthcare for every child

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Launched in 2015, the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) is appraising the differing models of child healthcare that are used across Europe. This project, which aims to advise policy making and help every child benefiting from optimum healthcare, will be finalised end of 2018.

AER & the MOCHA project

Within this project, AER belongs to the External Advisory Board. Right from the start AER therefore set up a Focus Group on Child Health Care under the leadership of Dr Marta Tatar which aimed at following the project closely and channel findings to AER members in a continuous way. In this context the Focus Group met on the occasion of the 2016 Spring plenaries in Timis (RO) to hear about the ambitions of the MOCHA project and how the consortium would be operating to evaluate the different models of child health care in Europe.

As a result of its engagement in the project, AER was able to provide feedback on findings from the consortium and develop its network of potential project partners. AER Coordinator for Policy & Knowledge Transfer Johanna Pacevicius participated in the MOCHA annual general meeting and the advisory board meeting in Riga on 23-26 October 2017 to contribute to the project’s work and gather content for the work of the AER Committees.

The participation in MOCHA prove instrumental in the AER work on health innovation ecosystems. MOCHA researchers have contributed to several AER events and activities, in particular:

  • A workshop on stakeholder mapping for the developement of health innovation ecosystems was conducted during the AER autumn plenaries in Izmir (TR), together with Prof. Mitch Blair, project coordinator, from the Imperial College of London ;
  • Prof Michael Rigby spoke about “The Informal and Formal Virtual Care Team – Consent, Trust and Enablement in a Digital World” during the 2017 Artic Light E-health Conference  in Nordbotten (S).
  • AER organised a workshop on harnessing the potential of social capital for integrated care systems together with Prof Michael Rigby at the ALEC 2017 conference.
  • AER members exchanged with Dr Paul Kocken and Dr Maria Brenner on youth mental health in the framework of the development of an interregionnal project on this topic.

In 2017 AER published an update on the progress of the MOCHA project, one year later it is time to look at achievements.

Gathering & analysing data on child healthcare

During its second year of research, the MOCHA consortium started to gather and analyse their initial results on a variety of topics such as:

  • E-Health Policy for Children
  • Integration of health and social care for children with complex health conditions
  • Harmonisation of child health care in Europe
  • Child Migrant Health Policy
  • Measurement of the Strength of Children’s Primary Care
  • Equity in primary care health systems for children
  • Innovative measures of quality of care and outcomes of child primary care models

This was a particularly busy, fascinating and complex time, as they began to disseminate their initial findings, in numerous conferences and events and test theories with a number of different stakeholder groups. Primary care services for children are multidisciplinary, ever changing and very much based in the communities they serve. The project’s work packages are therefore working in multidisciplinary ways in order to really understand the different health systems in the European Union and EEA countries. At the same time, the MOCHA team have been discussing how these results are shaping the project’s ultimate aim of appraising the models of primary care to children.

Now in the final months of the project, the focus is on organising and analysing the results, not least the vast amount of data received from the MOCHA country agents. The consortium is also working on identifying health outcome measures to compare with the project results, and wrestling with the inevitable data challenges that anyone working on children’s public health will be familiar with.

The MOCHA team is already busy developing conclusions and disseminating results as well as forming productive relationships with other EU projects and the World Health Organisation, to spread the knowledge learnt in MOCHA to benefit primary care for children, and ultimately improve children’s health.

The newsletter from March 2018 presents in particular an E-Book showcasing conditions for implementation of examples of best practices in primary child health care in European countries.

Final conference

The final MOCHA conference will take place in the Hague (NL) on 15-16 November 2018. This concluding event will share the headline results, introduce the formal reports, and enable stakeholder discussion on next steps after the project’s conclusion. This will include presentations on key MOCHA findings:

  • Invisibility of Children in Data and Policy Systems
  • Measurement Challenges
  • Listening to Young People
  • Vulnerable Children and Equity
  • Delivering Complex Care
  • Patients and Primary Care Interfaces
  • School and Adolescent Health Services
  • Health Workforce in Child Health
  • Education of the Child Health Workforce
  • E-Health as the Enabler
  • Optimal Service Models

The way forward for primary child healthcare Health in Europe will require understanding child-centricity, as well as bringing MOCHA results to local services and contextualising into European and Professional Initiatives

For more information about this project, visit the MOCHA webpage on the AER website or the official MOCHA  project website. It is also possible to subscribe to the MOCHA newsletter or consult previous newsletters. The project’s publications also provide invaluable insights on the different topics researched and the consortium’s findings.

 

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

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Improving Capacity to Implement Environmental Policy: Peer 2 Peer Study Visits

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Announcing EIR

For years, AER members have been making strides in achieving sustainable development and pursuing progressive environmental policies. To equip regions with the knowledge needed to implement the EU’s environmental standards and regulations, AER has put together numerous events and tools. Along the way, members have consistently expressed interest in exchanging knowledge and best practices. Now with the European Commission’s new program, the Environmental Implementation Review (EIR), bringing regions together to learn from one another will be easier than ever. Designed to improve the implementation of EU environmental law and policy, EIR is a natural extension of the TAIEX Instrument, a peer-to-peer exchange tool which draws on a database of public experts.

How it Works

With EIR EU member states can take part in expert missions, study visits, and workshops. Expert missions allow experts to be sent to institutions in other member states who have requested peer advice on a specific topic. A typical mission lasts between two to five days. Study visits involve employees from a requesting institution going on a working visit to other EU member state institutions to learn from their peers. Study visits also last between two to five days. Workshops (single or multi-country) can be organised in a requesting institution. These are shorter events, lasting two days.

These services are designed for people in charge of implementing environmental legislation at the national, the regional or the local level, as long as they are public or semi public bodies

For those interested in filing a request, it is important to check the EIR’s NL country reports first. These reports identify the main implementation gaps in environmental legislation and policy in each EU member state and outline successful practices that others can use, which will help identify regions where study visits will prove most useful.

Fields of Application

The EIR has identified the most pressing implementation gaps in member states and is accepting applications relating to these fields which are outlined below.

  1.  Transitioning the EU towards a circular, resource-efficient, green and competitive low-carbon economy. For this area the EIR is accepting applications which seek to: develop a circular economy and improve resource efficiency, and improve waste management. 
  2. Protecting, conserving, and enhancing natural capital. Under this field the EIR is accepting applications which seek to protect and conserve nature and biodiversity, estimate natural capital, improve and build green infrastructure, protect soil, and protect marine areas.
  3. Ensuring citizens’ health and quality of life. For this priority area fields of application include: improving air quality, reducing noise, improve water quantity and management, enhancing the sustainability of cities, and implementing international agreements.
  4. Market based instruments and investment, green taxation and environmentally harmful subsidies. Under this field, the EIR is accepting applications for green public procurement, and investments (the contribution of EU funds).
  5. Effective Governance and Knowledge. For this priority area, the EIR is accepting applications which seek to: enhance effective governance within central, regional, and local governments, ensure, increase public participation and access to justice, and increase the people’s access to information and knowledge.

Practical Information

The EIR program both arranges and covers the cost of travel, accommodations, and per diems for eligible participants, which are EU member states. Although the working language of the program is English, translations are provided when necessary and arranged prior to the event. Applications can easily be submitted online and are processed swiftly. They are available here and can be accessed in 23 different languages. To request a service, you must enter your email address here. When you have completed this step, you will receive an email with a link. When you have opened the link, you must chose the EIR peer 2 peer option.

The time between the request and implementation of a service is currently between depending on the quality of the application. Strong applications clearly identify the applicant’s needs, and the potential experts or good practices outside the region which the region wishes to benefit from.

Regions are able to suggest the name of the regions they would like to work with. If regions would like support identifying other regions they are most likely to benefit from working with, AER encourages them to contact the AER secretariat who will be happy to assist them.Follow AER!

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Active and Healthy Ageing: a major concern for the AER and CORAL

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On 20 September, invited to the Coral Meeting hosted in Brussels by the Region of Valencia, a Policy Officer from DG CONNECT talked about the approach taken by the European Commission with regard to health policies. Based on the EU focus on elderly people and digitalisation, the officer emphasised the need for a better exploitation of tools which are there, in order for EU investments and policies to be more result-oriented.

CORAL and AER

The Community of Regions for Assisted Living – CORAL is “a European Network of Regions collaborating in the field of Ambient Assisted Living and Active and Healthy Ageing”. This important regional network is shaped as “a learning community working on the implementation and upscaling of innovative solutions for Active and Healthy Ageing”. Given its long-standing involvement in Health and Ageing-related projects, and its commitment to involve member regions in concrete projects , AER sees great potential in the cooperation with the Coral Network.

Examples of  good cooperation can be identified in the past. Given the coherence of our objectives and the regional focus of both organisations, such a cooperation helps regions gain “a position in the fast growing European community of innovators in the field of Active and Healthy Ageing“.

Silver Europe and Digital Europe

“Europe is ageing fast”. The White Paper on the Future of Europe recognises this reality, while taking a wider picture of an evolving job market. This awareness is coupled by the need for the social protection system “to be significantly modernised to remain affordable and to keep pace with new demographic and working life realities”. Similar concerns are put forward also in the European Commission Communication A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe. This document stresses digital economy’s great potential as a leverage of social qnd economic progress, and highlights how such potential still remains largely unexploited. The main goal of the Commission in this respect is to build a Digital Single Market “on reliable, trustworthy, high-speed, affordable networks and services that safeguard consumers’ fundamental right to privacy and data protection while also encouraging innovation”.

Keeping in mind these final objectives, “the Commission aims to support an inclusive Digital Single Market in which citizens qnd businesses have the necessary skills and can benefit from interlinked and multilingual e-services, from e-government, e-justice, e-health, e-energy or e-transport”. However, for now digital technology has not impacted heavily the field of health and ageing. According to a recent Eurobarometer on the use of data in the healthcare field, people are still afraid of allowing their data being circulated on the internet, and only 5% of EU hospitals allow access to digital data. Against this background, the European Commission focuses on three main objectives:

  • Communication
  • Prevention of chronic deseases
  • create the condition for favourable healthy ageing

For these purposes, the European Commission aims at guaranteeing a more direct access to online data via pooling together national and local sources. The role of doctors also needs to be reconsidered, especially with regard to feedback given to patients: good e-health practices have to be improved and shared all around Europe. Likewise, changing responsibilities among existing healthcare organisations must be considered, skills and competences must be diffused as much as possible in order to give birth to a real person-centred health service. At the same time, law harmonisation and new financing seem to be essential preconditions to meet these challenges.

ESI Funds and the “Value of Death”

With the Investment Plan for Europe – Juncker Plan, the EU plans to help digitalisation and healthcare work together, in order to guarantee healthy ageing to its population. European Structural and Investment Funds should be used to leverage investments in this field. Indeed, given the conditionalities that come with ESIF, the EU aims to push national and local authorities to invest on coherent projects and initiatives. In particular, the EU values those project ideas having great potential for upscaling. Good examples of pilots that have upscaled can be found in Ireland, Estonia, in the Lazio Region, and in Porto.

The main targets of the Commission investments are therefore those kind of projects which help minimise the “value of death” in the EU, i.e. projects reducing the costs of illness for healthcare systems and societies in general. The lower the economic impact of diseases on the healthcare systems qnd societies, the lower the “value of death”. In order for investments to be significant enough as to reduce the “value of death”, political commitment at the national level and involvement of local authorities are essential. In order to have local and national authorities, as well as project promoters, support and embark on new pilot initiatives, it is crucial that they be confident on the security of their investment and property of the outcomes. To this end, certifications could be very helpful.

Actions and Targets of the Commission

In order to achieve these goals, the European Commission is actively engaged in:

  • spreading a common vision and raising commitment to meet the challenges of an ageing population
  • encouraging networking and collaboration among leading actors in both the healthcare and digital sector
  • encouraging innovation and standardisation in both sectors in order to secure innovative investments and keep the momentum
  • implementing its Engagement Strategy, also making use of public consultation on Healthcare’s state of play

Photo credits: @ visualhunt; @ silver economy awards Follow AER!

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Friendlier Healthcare for all regions? We’re working on it!

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Have you ever found yourself stuck for hours in your doctor’s waiting room, waiting for a consultation that turns out to be useless, or leading to further, more stressful examinations? If the answer is “yes”, you share this with many others from all around Central Europe. DH-SMART is here to help everyone overcome similar issues, once and for all, and is seeking partners to join in!

Want to know more?

As Europe grows old, healthcare services are under increasing pressure, and a conceptual revolution is needed. AER is well aware of this need, and is answering a call for proposals from INTERREG Central Europe, together with LHA Bologna and CUP2000. This project seeks to provide general practitioners with an information exchange platform, enabling them to seek help from a specialist when dealing with patients’ examinations. Such a platform could enable doctors to provide their patients with more tailored diagnosis and prescriptions based on the advise of specialists. Specialists will be contacted directly by general practitioners and be given some time to give their advise when the case is simple enough, thereby avoiding waste of time and money for both central healthcare service and end users.

Join the club!

Does all this sound interesting to you? Project initiators are currently looking for partners, and you would be most welcome to join the club! If you are

  • a doctor 
  • a central European healthcare organisation willing to develop a small pilot action and learning activities to promote equal access to healthcare
  • if you have expertise on impact evaluation or could provide innovative technical support and improve already existing platforms…

The project and your region need you!

What’s in it for Regions?

In a nutshell, the project aims at setting up smart practices in the healthcare field through the use of digital services, to promote an integrated person-centred healthcare system, to improve the resilience of healthcare systems, train professionals and make the most out of their competences. To achieve this goal, backing from local administrations is fundamental, both for making local needs known and providing other partners with the best environment to ensure follow-up to their pilots.

How do I get involved?

If this idea is of any interest to you, if you want to become partner and start a pilot, or if you believe that your region should support this project, please do contact Mr. Luca Magri at his email address [email protected] , or call the AER secretariat at the +32 (0)2 400 10 53. Do not miss the opportunity; the opening date for application is approaching fast! Applications welcome from September 21st! Please check the main website for more information.

Photo credit: @visualhunt: https://visualhunt.com/photo/8839/stethoscope-and-ballpen-on-prescription/Follow AER!

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AER E-health journey

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With its many years working on e-health and social innovation technologies, AER is recognised as leader in the field. Today, let’s go a few years back and look at everything AER has achieved from the creation of its E-health network in 2006 to its longstanding cooperation with ALEC.

E-health political breakthroughs

E-health can be defined as a set of IT tools used to meet the needs of citizens and patients as well as healthcare professionals, service providers, local authorities and national governments in the field of health.

It is of great political interest as it represents an innovative way to deliver health services, in particular in remote rural areas and to people with mobility difficulties. E-health is seen as an alternative in order to release scarce labour and infrastructure resources. Nowadays, 80% of financing in the health sector is assigned to human resources with around 75% coming directly from public funding. According to the European Commission, 17,5 million people are employed as administrative staff in the medical field, representing 9,3% workers in Europe. In that sense, e-health is determinant to optimise health administration and increase productivity in the sector.

Moreover, E-health is an essential tool for the modernisation of health services in Europe. This, in light of ever-decreasing health budgets and the increasing demands on health systems resulting from demographic changes. Innovation in the health system will with no doubt improve the exchange of information and good practice among healthcare actors and raise awareness on health widely! E-health services are particularly compelling to its usage in preventive health care as well as distance mental health treatments. Thanks to all the above, e-health is a major instrument in improving the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare services for patients.

Regarding economics and businesses, e-health is a sector with a significant growth potential: touching up-and-coming areas such as technologies, engineering and innovation. Besides, ICT research and development can effectively contribute to regional and EU economic growth.

E-health Network, a life story

AER E-health network was created in 2006. Its meaning was first to identify priority political areas in e-health and to develop joint cooperation projects for regions. The exchange of experience and good practice between regions is also a clear focus for the group.

Therefore, the aim of the network is to create a platform where regions can engage in interregional cooperation projects to develop e-health tools and where they can contribute to European policies on e-health. It brings together member regions interested in developing policies in this field, but also external organisations who focus on the development of e-health technologies. The network is fully open to AER member regions that are either already active in e-health or want to develop e-health policies and tools.

Focus areas include: e-diagnosis, research for available e-health resources, record keeping systems, distance planning, active and independent living for the elderly, mental health and e-health as a planning tool  for health and social systems.

The network especially works on:

  • Raising awareness and disseminating knowledge on the potential of e-health
  • Gathering information on existing tools, funding and policies and carry out studies
  • Together with other regions and partners in coordinating our e-health tools and strategies
  • Stimulating the development of products and services for the commercial market
  • Encouraging research and education in the e-health sector

It organises thematic meetings and several conferences a year to make sure regions fully benefit from other’s experience and good practice to learn everything there is to know about e-health and improve regional systems.

First round for the E-health network

From 2006, the network organised several seminars to exchange experience and start discussing potential interregional cooperation projects. Later that year, the ‘E-health: around the clock care for everyone, everywhere‘ conference was launched in Norbotten. It was the occasion to sharpen key fields of action, choosing to especially discuss e-health as a tool for service delivery, sharing patient information, prevention and dissemination of information. The harmonisation of regional systems and infrastructures as well as creating partnerships with other sectors were also a fundamental feature of the conference.

Following the conference, the network made it its priority to improve the delivery of health services, modernise these services in order to make them financially sustainable and improve access to health services, in particular in rural or remote areas.

In 2007, during a seminar held in Brussels region made their first proposals for e-health cooperation project. AER also actively participated in ‘The World of IT Health’ Conference, in Vienna to exchange observations on interoperable health systems as well as the legal and regulatory framework for e-health in Europe.

2008 was under the sign of promoting cross-border cooperation in e-health and facilitating exchange of e-health professionals. With the hit of the financial crisis, the group profoundly discussed european developments and funding opportunities. New focus subjects were brought to the table such as medical data privacy & protection as well as chronic disease management.

Building a strong link with e-health businesses

AER plays an active part in bringing together SMEs active in ehealth, regional authorities and the end users (patients’, youth and seniors’ associations). The aim is to bring all actors in the ehealth chain together to identify the future priorities in ehealth and to create synergies between them for the development and implementation of the necessary tools and policies.

Different approaches were tested to create a discussion forum for eHealth end users, buyers and developers. Finally a slack channel was successfully developed where all members are free to join. AER also help in facilitating the creation of a regional SMEs network on ehealth across Europe while encouraging the creation of strong trans-border partnerships between businesses involved in the health services.

A multi-stakeholder approach in need of clear leadership

In that sense, AER has always promoted a multi-stakeholder approach to develop innovation in the health sector, involving healthcare professionals, patients, end-users, businesses and industry. The network strongly encourages the exchange of knowledge and experience between all actors as well as e-awareness. This perspective was reinforced from 2010, with AER collaboration with EHTEL to stimulate crossborder cooperation in e-health.

From there, the e-health network recognized that e-health was not only a matter of technology and technics but lacks a clear leadership in the field. Since then, it has hardly worked to highlight the valuable role of regions in maintaining their citizens health. AER worked close with ETHEL in order to develop a programme to train regional representatives to the high stakes of e-health. AER’s strategy was to build capacity and leadership by following the “Learning by doing” principle and develop interregional cooperation projects through the INTERREG agenda. That way building relations to voice the regions’ demands. Such a project is still under development, identifying challenges, targeting sustainable investments and working to change mentalities.

 

AER representing member regions interest through the European Commission

AER launched several partnerships with the European Commission. Together, they organised several events, along with the support of the committee of regions.

One of the most significant collaboration involves the AHAIP initiatives in 2011, the “Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership“. The programme results in a pilot action designed to improve patients’ health and quality of life and the health administration’s efficiency, as well as supporting the elderly by granting them better quality services. The aim is to bring together actors at all levels and sectors to mobilise available resources and expertise. Once again, it encourages variety of stakeholders to work together while stimulating innovation and capacity. AER wants to make Europe a global leader in e-health, that according to her should be sustainable, an integral part of regional planning process and a priority among regional politicians.

Invited by the European Commission, the AER E-health network organised a workshop to showcase regional expertise in the e-health field. This event took place in the framework of the e-health week in Budapest, a major conference that gathered politicians, health administrators, researchers and industries in order to discuss future priorities for e-health. The forum’s participants emphasised the major role played by regions in the deployment of personal e-health solutions by highlighting the progress achieved for chronic pathologies such as diabetes, cardio-vascular and obstructive pulmonary diseases. The aim of this session was to identify the steps that need to be taken to link the various regional initiatives across Europe today and achieve the AER e- he@lth network’s vision: dropping the ‘e’ from ‘e-health’, plus,  what needs to be done to achieve Europe-wide deployment of e-health.

Longstanding partnership – ALEC

Since 2010, AER developed strong links with the Artic Light E-health Conference. ALEC is a captivating event uniting digital health professionals from across the globe meet in the arctic region of Norrbotten for two days of inspiration, networking and skill development. The event is hosted by the President of AER Committee 2, Ms Agneta Granström who is also the Chair of the AER e-health network.

Each year AER members are invited to participate in a great panel of events on e-health, including study visits. ALEC enables all stakeholders discuss digital’s potential to bridge health gaps, and develop tools to design better health for all. Past conferences have included key aspects of e-health sought to address both the technical and organisational aspects affecting the patient’s experience. Participants discuss sustainable e-health (social, environmental & economical),independent living and prevention. Together they exchange on european perspectives, best practices, cross border services and identify challenges.

Last year the 5th Arctic Light e-Health Conference  was held in Sweden.

Speeding up actions

From 2016, AER became a true leader in E-health good practice event, multiplying opportunities for its regions.

AER members met with Representatives from the industry, academy and institution will meet up in Budapest (HU)  for the international 360° Summit on eHealth. Together they discussed quality healthcare provisioning in Europe, a major issue for the EU healthcare systems. In deed, the population growth and the increasing number of chronic patients is creating a strong budgetary pressure on governments. AER provided concrete actions to face this challenge within its Committees, favouring a dialogue among health, innovation, enterprises and social policies.

Besides, AER actively joined in “E-health: let’s find a common language” event hosted by Brussels Capital at the Committee of the Regions. The event aimed at providing participants with information on funding opportunities in the field of healthcare,  new connections, tested ideas to improve communication between stakeholders, inspiration and mutual understanding. AER wants to show increase collaboration and improve communication among stakeholders, beginning at the regional level.  This event successfully managed to bring together companies and organisations working on e-health via group discussions, enhancing the participation and the exchange of ideas.

Finally AER participated in a session organised by ECHAlliance on a new “Coalition of the Willing” at the 2016 e-health week. This digital health journey across Europe aims at speeding up the deployment of e-health in regions. Agneta Granström presented the issues faced by europeans regions. When it comes to using e-health to build a new, sustainable and patient-centered health system, which supports health innovation, leadership is key. Ms. Granström emphasized the need for change management, change leadership and an increased focus on improving digital literacy among leaders.

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E-health, connect the dots: connect people

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In areas involving multiple stakeholders, communication is important to avoid misunderstandings and improve collaboration & co-creation

This is the absolutely the case of e-health! While this health innovation area involves many different kinds of activities and stakeholders, it is still often difficult to generate common understanding. it is therefore urgent to create opportunities for genuine discussion and sharing of experiences. In an ever changing environment, bringing stakeholders together is fundamental to let ideas develop and cooperation happen.

Share experiences

AER is proud of the success of the event it organised on December 1st in Brussels, “E-health: let’s find a common language!” together with Brussels Capital region and partner networks. The objective was to increase collaboration and improve communication among stakeholders, beginning at the regional level. Results were very positive. The format was developped in a way to maximise experience sharing and mutual learning. This event managed to bring together companies and organisations working on e-health via group discussions, enhancing the participation and the exchange of ideas.

Don’t stop the music

In order to allow for the discussion to continue and for participants to be able to connect with organisations which were present on the spot here is a short introduction on some of them:

Uw Compaan

Uw Compaan ( www.uwcompaan.be ) provides an out-of-the box computer tablet for grandparents: this simple-to-use tablet makes it easy to communicate with friends and family, to read the news and to use medical applications. It is our mission to bridge the digital divide & connect generations and our vision to create a society where seniors can remain longer actively healthy and independently.

St. Jude Medical

St. Jude Medical is a global medical device company committed to providing innovations that embrace eHealth solutions to tackle the challenges of an ageing society, so more people can live longer, healthier lives. Our approach is to provide comprehensive solutions to improve patient outcomes, maximise operational efficiencies and reduce costs.

Trainm

TRAINM (Technologies, Robotics and Innovative NeuroModulation), an innovative technology-based neuro-rehabilitation center in Antwerp, Belgium, is the first and only outpatient neuro rehabilitation center to offer patients personalized high intensity therapies by a team of doctors and therapists, coupled with non-invasive brain stimulation, neurotechnology, virtual reality, neuro gaming, artificial intelligence and robotics to enable better recoveries for patients than is otherwise possible.

CORAL

CORAL is an European network of regions collaborating in the field of Ambient Assisted Living and Active and Healthy Ageing. Through a process of open innovation to solve the barriers implementing AAL and AHA solutions and services. CORAL focuses on regional policies about Active and Healthy Ageing and Ambient Assisted Living.

EHTEL

Our health and care systems needs more than new technologies; they also need innovative practices, where technology is only an enabler e.g. for new care process, new services. The biggest challenge they face is scaling them up or transposing them from one place to another one, from one health and care system to another one. This is about managing the change, adapting existing business models, engaging citizens and professionals. Collaborative tools and methods as well as capacities need to be built for scaling-up innovation in healthcare. This is urgent and the EHTELconnect service offering is our contribution to address this challenge.

EUREGHA

European Regional and Local Health Authorities (EUREGHA) is a network of local and regional health authorities. EUREGHA was created on January 30th 2006 following an opinion of the Committee regarding patient mobility and open coordination on health quality care. EUREGHA aims to create synergies between regional and local authorities and EU stakeholders in the field of health issues with a very simple but important focus: working together for more sustainable and efficient health care systems.

Upcoming events

The ALEC 2017 event on 1-2 February will be an opportunity to further improve the dialogue between stakeholders. AER will in particular moderate a workshop on tapping into social capital and the engagement of carers and patients in integrated care systems.

ALEC 2017

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Committee 2 takes a closer look at the health of refugees

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At their plenary meeting in Izmir on 9 November 2016, Committee 2 took a closer look at the challenges facing regions for tackling the health of refugees. The work on this topic was initiated in September this year when AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli visited Saint-Pierre University Hospital in Brussels to raise awareness on the issue. The visit crystallised the numerous challenges that medical practitioners face to provide care to asylum seekers and the need to share expertise among regions.

Committee 2 took advantage of their presence in Izmir to hear from Ms Fatma Sıla Asıbostan, Health Care worker at ASAM, Multi Service Center for Refugees. She highlighted the specific needs of asylum seekers in Izmir which include providing information and training, with interpreters but also automatic vaccination upon arrival. She confirmed what was already confirmed by doctors in Brussels that refugees do bring diseases that are less common or sometimes non existant in their new country.

AER Committee 2 President, Ms Agneta Granström (Norrbotten-SE) also gave an overview of the integration process of migrants in Norrbotten stressing that “migration is an opportunity to improve our societies, especially in Sweden, so our greatest challenge is not migration itself, but the most effective way to integrate these people. As health can be a barrier for integration, we pay special attention to develop migration-sensitive health systems”. Ms Granström presented some of the concrete outcomes policies in place for the 6000 asylum seekers in Norrbotten which include a health examination, information in their own language, training for health care professionals, etc.

Prof. Mitch Blair, Professor of Paediatrics & Child Public Health from the Imperial College London (UK) presented some of the outcomes and lessons from the MOCHA (Models of Child Health Appraised) project. The project aims at building a picture of what type of health care for children exists in all 30 EU/EEA countries. MOCHA is a European project, funded by European Union (EU) within the Horizon 2020 program.

In August 2016, MOCHA produced a study entitled: “Migrant Children in Europe: Entitlements to Health Care” and reads “Research has shown that asylum-seeking and newly-settled refugee children have high rates of stress-related mental health problems during the first years after resettlement, with unaccompanied minors having the highest rates of symptoms. Infectious diseases and poor dental health are more common in these children than in settled European populations and many have an accumulated need of preventive and basic health. Thus, access to health care is a major concern for migrant children.”

 

Read the full MOCHA report on migrant children

MOCHA website: http://www.childhealthservicemodels.eu/

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EU Health Award launched!

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The European Union Health Policy Forum (EUHPF), is a communication platform between the European Commission and health stakeholders that brings together umbrella organisations representing European stakeholders in the fields of public health and healthcare, with the aim of helping to ensure the EU’s Health Strategy is open, transparent and responds to public concerns. AER has been a member of the platform, where it has been representing regions for several years.

In this context, the European Commission just launched its new EU Health Award, which this year will recognise and reward the efforts and achievements of European NGOs towards reducing the threat to human health from antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The call for applications focuses in fields such as:

· Prevention of infection

· Appropriate use of antimicrobials

· Surveillance

· Tackling AMR from a specific disease perspective (e.g. Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS…).

· Other initiatives that can reduce the threat to human health from AMR.

Prizes are as follows:
  • 1st prize:             20 000 €
  • 2nd prize:           15 000 €
  • 3rd prize:            10 000 €
International, European, national and regional non-governmentalbodies legally registered in the EU Member States or another country participating in the 3rd Health Programme are eligible (Iceland, Norway, Serbia).
The EU Health Award Team invites you to submit your application online before the 31 July 2016.
For more information you can go to:
 
• Twitter @EU_Health 
 
• Contact mail: [email protected]
 

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E-Health: efficiency starts with dialogue

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Kiruna, Norrbotten (S), 6 February 2014

The fourth bi-annual Arctic-Light e-He@lth Conference, ALEC 2014 took place in Kiruna and gathered 200 participants on the theme of the ‘co-creating patient’ on 4-6 February. Opened by President Ilves of Estonia, the conference featured an impressive panel of speakers, who sought to address both the technical and organisational aspects affecting the patient’s experience.

Data ownership, interoperability, security, accessibility, communication, shifting perceptions are but a few of the themes that were discussed in ALEC 2014. Indeed to achieve patients’ empowerment and better healthcare, infrastructure is essential but it should go hand in hand with true organisational change, trust and good contact between patients and caregivers. In this context sharing good but also bad practices, learning from each other’s experiences is key to achieve faster and more efficient deployment of innovative solutions.

Participants were therefore also encouraged to take part in the ENGAGED side event on “building a learning community for active and healthy ageing solutions”. ENGAGED is a process-oriented network, which brings together stakeholders from very different backgrounds around the emergence of innovative and sustainable active and healthy ageing (AHA) services that make best use of technology. Today’s workshop therefore was very interactive and led to the production of material, which will feed in upcoming workshops in an incremental way.

“During these 3 days we heard about successful initiatives from Europe and beyond. E-health is possible, it does provide more comfort, safety and a better link with caregivers. Now we need regional decision-makers to keep this momentum and engage in dialogue both within their regions and at interregional and national level to roll out e-health” said Agneta Granström, the AER e-He@lth Network President and County Commissioner of Norrbotten.

“E-health is not about technology only, but about empowering the patients and generating more social and territorial cohesion, Regions have a pivotal role in initiating effective change impulses and AER provides them with a tailor-made platform to scale up action” underlined AER President Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli.

For more information: [email protected]

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Culture at the patients’ bedside: AER regional politicians and academics place culture at the service of health

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Istanbul (TR), 21 September 2011

The joint meeting of the ‘Social Policy and Public Health’ and ‘Culture, Education, Youth and International Cooperation’ Committees of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) led yesterday a new initiative by gathering the members of its. They jointly organized a conference on ‘Culture and Health’ in Istanbul (TR) that started off with the following diagnosis: scientific studies show that culture has an impact on well-being, reduces stress, protects and nourishes the brain, limits degeneration and helps tackle disease. In short, it is now proven that culture has enormous benefits for health.

During this day, 10 professors and experts presented examples of cultural projects that centre around supporting ill people. Through music, dance, art and reading we can help people who are suffering. In all the cases that were presented, culture was a ‘medicine’ for citizens, irrespective of whether they suffered from a physical or mental illness, or simply old age. A study shown today has actually estimated that 25% of sick people could lead longer and healthier lives thanks to the increased use of cultural and artistic tools.

“I am impressed by the wealth of ideas and the creativity that these projects have demonstrated today. As President of the AER Culture Committee, I encourage all our members to develop actions in their regions. There are people out there who are already doing amazing things, we have seen that today; we now need public authorities to step up their support,” stated Dr Hande Özsan Bozatli. Vladimir KOSIC, President of Committee 2 and Minister for Health and Social Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia (I) added “There can be no culture without health, as there can be no health without culture. The common feature of both culture and health are human relationships, which must be at the heart of our policy concerns.”

“In light of the latest scientific knowledge and convincing evidence presented today, it is our duty to intrinsically link culture and health. They are two key dimensions of our policies, because they are of course essential for our citizens’ well-being but also because they are an indicator of our societies’ health,” concluded Michèle Sabban, AER President.

For more information: [email protected] AER!

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On the road to active and healthy ageing in Europe

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Codroipo, Friuli Venezia Giulia (I), 18th May 2011

The members of Assembly of European Regions’ (AER) Committee on ‘Social policy and Public health’ met today in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (I) to discuss the recent initiatives launched by the European Union in the field of active and healthy ageing, as well as the newly adopted directive on cross-border healthcare, both of which raise the fundamental question of managing healthcare in the regions of Europe.

Among the aforementioned European Commission initiatives is the AHAIP, the “Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership”, a pilot action designed to improve patients’ health and quality of life and the health administration’s efficiency, as well as supporting the elderly by granting them better quality services. The aim is to bring together actors at all levels and sectors to mobilise available resources and expertise.

“We warmly welcome the AHAIP initiative launched by the European Commission” stated Vladimir KOSIC, President of the AER ‘Social Policy and Public Health Committee’. “My region for instance is investing a lot of money in order to find solutions to provide a commodious life to the ageing people. In a changing society, this kind of investment is not a political choice, it is a necessary reaction to a new reality. Regions will help steer the priorities of this new innovation partnership to make sure that it addresses our citizens’ needs” he concluded.

Today’s discussion also touched upon the EU Directive on cross-border healthcare approved last March. This directive aims at facilitating patients’ access to safe and high-quality cross-border healthcare, but also at promoting cooperation in healthcare between member states. “ Now that the directive has been adopted, the question is to know what will be the impact at regional level, and how regions can implement it in their territory” concluded Vladimir KOSIC.

AER commitment to support AHAIP

• By providing the EU with more information about regional best practices
• By raising awareness among our member regions
• By applying AER methodology through: 1. Peer Reviews – one week long study visit of a multinational experts team to assess the host region work in a specific field; 2.Training Academies: trainers from AER member regions come to share their experience in a specific field.
• By encouraging regions to invest more in innovation in their territories
• By contributing to the AHAIP mechanism once it is operational
• By continuing to establish a bridge with other relevant stakeholders in the field

For more information: [email protected]

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