European Commission seeks public views on health and care in the Digital Single Market

Last week, the European Commission (EC) launched a public consultation which main purpose is to define potential policy measures on digital initiatives (i) supporting the transition from a hospital-based healthcare model to a person-centred and integrated model and (ii) contributing to the sustainability of EU Member States’ healthcare systems.  The EC considers that digital innovation can empower citizens to access and manage personal health data everywhere in the EU, drastically advance the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and better anticipate outbreaks. In this respect, the consultation seeks to collect views on:

• Citizens’ access to and management of personal health data for the purposes of disease management (including granting healthcare actors cross-border access to data, analysing barriers that prevent interoperability of electronic health records across the EU, etc.);
• Connecting and sharing data and expertise to advance health research, disease management and personalised healthcare (including the use of advanced big data, cloud computing, digital infrastructure to pool health data across the EU, etc.);
• Promoting digital initiatives to empower citizens and support interaction with healthcare actors (including access to digital health services such as remote monitoring, implementation of measures to take health-related informed decisions, etc.)

This transversal policy initiative involves various EC departments, namely, Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE), and Research and Innovation (DG RTD) working under the umbrella of the Digital Single Market strategy.  The input received will feed into a new policy Communication expected by the end of 2017.

Interested parties can participate in the consultation through an EU Survey until 12 October 2017.

This post was originally co-authored by Patricia Carmona Botana.