Challenge

Healthcare procurement frequently focuses on purchasing products at the lowest initial price, even when a more innovative solution could improve patient outcomes, care experiences and long-term costs. Procurers also work within different national rules and organisational structures, making it difficult to identify common needs or purchase innovative health and social care solutions jointly across borders.

This fragmentation limits the market for new solutions and slows the introduction of rapid diagnostics and patient-centred integrated care. Public authorities therefore need shared evaluation criteria, practical procurement methods and legal guidance that allow them to compare solutions according to their overall value rather than price alone.

Solutions

EURIPHI brought healthcare providers, public procurement organisations, regional authorities and specialist partners together around a value-based procurement approach. It adapted the Most Economically Advantageous Tender methodology so that purchasing decisions could consider outcomes for patients, professionals and health systems alongside costs. The project also developed legal guidance for three models for organising cross-border procurement while retaining local decision-making.

Results

EURIPHI produced a practical toolkit for value-based innovation procurement, including procurement guidance, legal advice, a MEAT Value-Based PPI tool and models for cross-border collaboration. Its work-integrated care defined a focused set of procurement objectives, while the rapid-diagnostics activities connected clinical demand with available technologies, including solutions for diagnosing ventilator-associated pneumonia.

The project also strengthened connections between procurers and gave them a shared process for turning unmet healthcare needs into procurement requirements. Its Community of Practice, regional network and permanent secretariat provided a structure for continuing this cooperation and preparing future European procurement initiatives.