Challenge

Countries across Europe rapidly adopted digital health solutions during COVID 19, yet scaling these innovations sustainably remains challenging. Stakeholder fragmentation,  including patients, clinicians, tech vendors, policymakers, and payers, alongside uneven capacity and tool availability, impedes broader uptake. DHU aims to bridge these gaps by aligning ecosystems, enhancing coordination, and providing education and support to ensure digital health solutions can be adopted at scale.

Solutions

Launched in November 2022 under the EU Digital Europe Programme, DHU is a 24-month Coordination & Support Action involving seven partners and numerous associated experts. It revolves around three key pillars:

1. DHU Radar – A continuously updated platform for discovering, analysing, and monitoring digital health solutions, policies, and tools across Europe.
2. Knowledge Community – A collaborative space bringing together demand-side (patients, healthcare providers, regional authorities) and supply-side (SMEs, large companies, public sector) actors to exchange experiences, challenges, and best practices.
3. Accelerator – Offers targeted twinning opportunities, technical assistance, training programs, and ecosystem expansion to support the scaling and sustainable uptake of digital health innovations.
The project supports eight twinning partnerships, providing financial aid, mentoring, and peer-to-peer collaboration aimed at replicating proven digital health interventions across regions.

Results

DHU strengthens the digital health ecosystem by increasing harmonization of digital health policies and deployment practices. Its Radar enhances visibility of mature solutions, helping innovators connect with adopters. Training and twinning schemes empower over 1,300 member organizations, providing access for more than 80,000 experts to capacity-building tools and shared knowledge. In doing so, DHU accelerates cross-border scaling and sustainability of digital health services, contributing to resilient and digitally enabled health systems.