Healthcare technologies at the centre of the digital single market

Today marks one week since the adoption of the Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy. COCIR* continues to support the Juncker Commission’s initiative to tear down regulatory walls and achieve further harmonisation with a view to creating a more innovative, safe and secure digital and industrial ecosystem across the EU.

As Europe’s healthcare systems struggle to cope with increasing cost and quality
pressures, the DSM is a tremendous opportunity to realise the potential of integrated
care, where innovative medical technologies and connectivity come together to improve health outcomes, empower citizens and maximise the competitiveness of Europe’s healthcare industry.

Alongside other verticals such as transport and energy, COCIR industries represent a key sector of the Digital Economy that the DSM will enable. The integration of a growing array of medical and patient-generated data to personalise treatments and healthcare delivery constitutes a major milestone in the rollout of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0. A policy vision that ensures scalability and interoperability between industries and services is needed to deliver on this promise. As stated in our paper on Integrated Care, part of COCIR’s eHealth Toolkit 2015, COCIR therefore welcomes actions for the creation of a single, leading and competitive eHealth market that can create the same market conditions across Europe.

In this context, standards are prerequisites to reach economies of scale for companies
that offer eHealth solutions and services, leading to lower costs and interoperability for
users, an open ecosystem and a more rapid take-up as experience is transmitted faster between Member States. Moreover, local specificities hindering the development of the eHealth market, e.g. data protection laws setting out location requirements, need to be tackled while maintaining trust and security for citizens and businesses. The DSM actions to foster standardisation and support market adoption, e.g. through an update and extension of the European Interoperability Framework, as well as to address data portability and security, will play a big role.

Nicole Denjoy, COCIR Secretary General, stated:

The DSM Strategy is a strong signal from the European Commission that the time has come for more ambitious plans to maximise Europe’s growth potential thanks to digital. We are delighted to see that eHealth features prominently in the Strategy among the key technologies that need to be leveraged to put Europe at the forefront of a smart, inclusive industrial and services economy. As a leading voice of Europe’s healthcare technology sector, COCIR looks forward to being an active partner of the European institutions to make the Strategy a reality