Challenge

Europe faced a difficulty of moving a great number of digital health innovations beyond isolated projects and into routine care. Health and care organisations needed practical support to identify effective solutions, assess their impact and transfer them between regions. Fragmented data systems, uneven adoption of interoperability standards, complex privacy requirements and limited knowledge of funding opportunities also hindered the secure exchange and wider use of health data.

Solutions

DigitalHealthEurope brought healthcare providers, public authorities, patient organisations, researchers and technology specialists together around three priorities: secure access to health data, better use of data for research and personalised care, and digital tools that empower citizens. The project identified mature, replicable services, assessed their impact using tools such as MAFEIP, SCIROCCO and MAST. and helped organisations adopt proven solutions through twinning, matchmaking, capacity-building and funding advice. It also established three multi-stakeholder collaboration platforms covering EU’s digital health priorities.

Results

DHE turned experience from individual projects into resources that other organisations could put to use. Its outputs included 25 twinning projects, a catalogue of 65 mature digital solutions, a telehealth catalogue developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, deployment guidance and funding support. These activities helped healthcare organisations learn directly from successful adopters and develop practical plans for introducing proven services in new settings.

The project also consulted nearly 140 stakeholders and experts and produced 32 actionable recommendation for responsible health-data sharing and the emerging European Health Data Space. Its interoperability guidance and recommendations gave policymakers and healthcare organisations a clearer route towards secure data exchange, citizen control of health information and wider deployment of person-centred digital care.