Brussels, 03/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is considering ways to modernise health systems in Europe. On Friday 30 October, it opened a public consultation on the preliminary opinion “Disruptive Innovation. Considerations for health and health care in Europe”, adopted the previous day by the Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (EXPH).
“Disruptive innovation” is a concept developed in the United States to consider ways to improve health and reduce the cost of healthcare systems. It is a type of innovation that creates new networks and new organisational cultures involving new players, as opposed to the concept of traditional innovation (“non-disruptive innovation”). At present, the areas of disruptive innovation attracting greatest attention include: - new models of person-centred community-based health delivery that allow decentralisation from traditional health care venues like hospitals to integrated care models; - new technologies that allow early diagnostics and personalised medicine; - person-oriented approaches for the treatment of patients with multiple chronic diseases; - education of the health workforce and transfer of skills from highly trained, high-cost personnel to personnel with less specialised training who are more affordable.
“Health care providers are currently faced with an extremely complex challenge characterised by rising demand, increasing cost and insufficient funding. In light of this, European health systems must consider innovation as a key instrument in achieving sustainable and efficient solutions”, says the expert panel.
The panel's preliminary opinion develops a taxonomy, identifies drivers and barriers and assesses its relevance in the EU by listing some case studies.
The public consultation seeking feedback from the scientific community and stakeholders runs until 16 December 2015.
See: http://ec.europa.eu/health/expert_panel/consultations/disruptive_innovation_en.htm. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)