eHealth Innovation Thematic Network

Objectives and methodology

Objectives: eHealth Innovation will develop consensus among stakeholders and produce a roadmap towards making interoperable eHealth services deployed at large scale in Europe, thereby also supporting patients in managing their health. The resulting requirements for a supportive infostructure and for further innovation measures are further objectives.

The eHealth Innovation TN addresses four main thematic areas:

1. Chronic disease management for an ageing population: work in this area will focus on identification of good practice and innovative solutions, including reviewing different models of sharing care and management decisions with patients.
2. Personalised health services and patientcentred healthcare for an ageing population: work in this area will focus on cooperation between patient and health professionals and include topics such as improved information and communication, patients’ access to their health data, improved care and care coordination through electronic patient records (EPR), personal health records (PHR) and personal health systems (PHS).
3. Patient empowerment systems and solutions for an ageing population: work in this area will focus on support for patients in managing their health and includes topics such as Personal Health Systems (PHS), Personal Guidance Systems (PGS, part of PHS), chronic disease management (CDM) and integrated care (IC) that goes beyond contemporary models of chronic disease management. This thematic area will focus on innovative solutions and lessons learnt from implementation to inform the roadmap.
4. EU-wide eHealth infostructure: focus will be on the need for and creation of a pan-European infostructure (information and knowledge infrastructure) based on and further supporting the development of existing national infrastructures, and facilitating patient care, public health, health research, health education, (self-)health management. The topics to address in this work domain include questions of semantic interoperability, advanced EHR based solutions, interfaces to the infostructure, knowledge generation (e.g. from patient monitoring) and feedback to patients (and doctors) as well as data re-use.

All mentioned thematic areas will have to deal with issues surrounding the efficient engagement of individuals in managing their health, improved, interactive communication, shared healthcare, improved care coordination. Recommendations will be formulated towards overcoming such key barriers and challenges as market fragmentation and lack of interoperability, lack of legal certainty, insufficient availability of financial support and procurement issues. The TN, through its final output, a European eHealth Innovation Roadmap, will address these challenges and recommend appropriate policy measures and strategic actions at the European, national and stakeholder levels based on input and validation by all stakeholder groups concerned. The roadmap will include an operational work plan, including specific guidelines, for the large scale deployment of innovative eHealth services.

Methodology: The work approach will include the preparation of draft concept briefs on the main thematic areas by topic leaders (core partners) and editorial teams. These briefs will also include an analysis of policy processes (from vision and strategy to implementation, evaluation and feedback), different policy instruments and measures, and will use SWOT-like analyses and business use case based approaches. The draft briefs will be discussed and further developed during targeted, workshops and consultation meetings.

A validated roadmap for large scale deployment of innovative, personalised health services will be the final outcome.

Expected outcomes

In total, five workshops will be organised around the thematic areas identified above. The workshops will each produce validated reports and recommendations on their respective topics.

The cumulated results will feed into a final validated roadmap.

The network involves 22 partners: 20 from 10 Member States and 2 from Switzerland representing a broad range of stakeholders: national and regional authorities, industry (ICT and pharma), national solution providers, researchers and users (health professionals, patients, healthcare providers and insurers/third party payers), European and national associations.

eHealth Innovation TN

Email: eHinnovation@empirica.com
Project website: http://www.ehealth-innovation.eu/
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Dipak Kalra
Contact person: Petra Dimmers
University College London Consultants Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 9740
Email: p.dimmers@ucl.ac.uk

Partners:

1. University College London Consultants Ltd.
2. empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations- und Technologieforschung mbH
3. Klinisk Informatiky
4. European Institute for Health Records
5. Continua Health Alliance
6. The University of Manchester
7. National Institute of Public Health, Rep. of Slovenia
8. Ministry of Health, France
9. Dutch Association for primary & integrated healthcare
10. County Council of Uppsala
11. Royal College of Physicians
12. European Connected Health Campus
13. University of Sheffield
14. AOK Rheinland/Hamburg – die Gesundheitskasse
15. Government of Catalonia HTA Agency
16. Czech National eHealth Forum
17. European Health Telematics Association
18. European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry
19. Universitat Pompeu Fabra
20. Health Consumer Powerhouse
21. University Hospitals of Geneva
22. F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG

Timetable:

from 05/11 to 11/13
Total cost: € 497,500