Affiliations: Unit D3 Risk Assessment, DG SANCO, European Commission, Rue Breydel, 4, 1049-Bruxelles, B232, 08/003 Brussels, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2 29 80 394; E-mail: rostislava.dimitrova@ec.europa.eu
Abstract: Growth and growth enhancing policies are among the top priorities of the EU policy agenda to overcome mounting budgetary, economic and societal challenges, e.g. demographic change. The Europe 2020 strategy aims to coordinate and support actions at European, national and regional level to enhance smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. By developing the European Innovation Partnership for active and healthy ageing, the Commission aimed at fostering innovation as a way of reaching the goal of increasing Healthy Life Years (HLY) by 2 years on average across the EU Member States. The goal is a triple win for Europe: better health and independent living for elderly citizens, sustainable health systems and a competitive market of innovative products responding to elderly needs. eHealth plays an important role in reaching this objectives. The EIP policy aims to bring together stakeholders to remove barriers for the uptake of eHealth innovation and growth of eHealth markets, developing or rolling out sustainable business models of eHealth and telemedicine, exploring innovative funding mechanisms, e.g. PPPs, improving interoperability and ending market fragmentation. To improve interoperability between electronic health systems and maximise social and economic benefits of eHealth is also the main objective of the new eHealth Network (Directive 2001/24/EU) – a voluntary network of national authorities responsible for eHealth, which all EU Member states have joined.
Keywords: eHealth, growth, innovation, active and healthy ageing, interoperability, sustainable health systems
