Covid-19 highlights need for "resilient & sustainable healthcare" - EIT

The Covid-19 pandemic was an eye-opener on the need to better equip systems for public health crises. Consumers and shareholders are pushing firms towards greater sustainability and lockdowns and quarantine tested supply chains - with the healthcare sector bearing the brunt of the struggle.

Part of building back better is ensuring sectors are made more resilient in the face of another pandemic while ensuring there is little disruption so they can meet goals in the long term. A new report from EU-funded non-profit EIT Health lays out ideas to make healthcare systems more sustainable and resilient.

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The report pulls together analysis from academia, civil society, policymakers, industry, payers and providers on the role of healthcare innovation across different sectors. It states building on these is essential in ensuring future crises are tackled appropriately.

"The pandemic has given us some great lessons about what went wrong and identified opportunities to improve our health systems," according to Dr Jan Hazelzet, professor emeritus of healthcare quality and outcomes at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

"This has generated considerable discussion, analysis and impetus for strategic and financial initiatives to ensure systems are strengthened and better prepared for the future," the report states.

At the top of the agenda is the need for an "EU Health Union" which could lead to a "strengthening of frameworks" dedicated to dealing with public health at an EU level including revisions of guidelines by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Standardisations could remove bureaucracy within the healthcare sector and make dealing with other crises - particularly those that straddle borders - far simpler.

Put simply, EIT wants future responses to treat all equally, with systems that "respond to the needs of citizens, patients, healthcare systems and society as a whole."

It specifies this as a commitment to the "European model" or ensuring everyone in the bloc has access to healthcare. However, it determines this as "affordable" healthcare rather than a legislative universal healthcare model - such as with the UK's NHS - which eliminates upfront costs, although universal models may not work at an EU level.

It believes the digital transformation will be key to these changes as information exchange and digital literacy becomes more important.

The report also urges providers to ensure response measures, such as recovery funds or post-crisis infrastructure stimuli, through the establishment of the European Health Emergency Response Authority (HERA) and schemes such as EU4Health are effective in helping member states recover and build back properly.

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These could help economies bounce back from the economic depressions that follow disasters such as pandemics while also providing necessary funding and guidance to strengthen the systems, reducing the negative consequences in the face of future crises.

EIT also claims that the societal and economic benefits of healthcare innovation have yet to be properly explored through data, favouring a "holistic approach" to solving issues in the industry.

Perhaps the most important take from the report is that the issues plaguing the industry are hardly new, but exacerbations of previously identified issues within the sector, which could make them easier to deal with.

Projects such as Horizon Europe or the EU's Digital Health Act show that innovations in the sector are on the Commission's agenda. Nonetheless, EIT claims, the pandemic highlighted the need for new and transformative technologies to support public health in the future.

Pushes in automation, the use of AI and machine learning in clinical settings, innovations in medical devices and diagnostics - such as the use of 3D printing - new pathways to disease management and the overhauling of care pathways are all ways in which the industry is embracing technology. 

There are also significant opportunities for other areas of innovation. For example, there could be more widespread adoption of robots in surgeries where human error needs to be eliminated, or drones - such as those seen in Scotland - could carry healthcare supplies in a pandemic.

However, Covid-19 also exposed key weaknesses of the EU's healthcare systems, including shortfalls in preparation leading to fragmented action against the pandemic, a lack of regional coordination and infrastructure gaps.

The EU was also criticised for "hoarding vaccines" despite its plans to aid in the rollout in developing nations, which still see rampant cases.

EIT claims the pandemic has seen an overhaul to the EU's approach to healthcare, reforms, including plans to mitigate the effects of health systems from public health events have yet "to be reflected" in these forms.

The main thrust of the report is that legislation needs to affect the whole bloc equally, rather than the fragmented approach currently seen which favours some nations other others.

"EIT Health seeks to be a partner in supporting a process that involves all stakeholders by breaking down barriers, challenging the status quo and ensuring that innovation can lead to value-based, high-value care that responds to the needs of citizens, patients, healthcare systems and society as a whole," the report states.

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It argues that technological innovation remains the top way to reach its goals, stating it is imperative that the challenges seen during the pandemic spur real action.

Key to this is "strong political leadership and vision" from Member States, which will be required to move forward. The report states some systems may not be ready for change, which will require long-term goals to be laid out clearly. This will also directly tackle the issue of fragmented response.

Much of this should be handled at a Member State level rather than by the Commission or Parliament to allow for greater flexibility based on a nation's needs.

It also suggests healthcare workers may need to be reskilled, including in digital health education, while also advocating for easier data sharing between companies, which it suggests could aid innovation while allowing healthcare systems that are less resilient to catch up.

In addition, the report says simulation tech or similar software could be used to perform stress tests of certain scenarios, which could better equip healthcare firms and governments to deal with future crises. This would also mean access to population health data in the event of a future pandemic.

Finally, it suggests the bloc should come up with a master plan for Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) standardised health data by converging all projects in one direction.

Of course, we couldn't cover everything in the report, but these are the main points.

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The EU appears to have made significant improvements to its healthcare management since the onset of the pandemic, but dealing with fragmentation and leadership at a state level will be imperative to ensuring proper healthcare reaches everyone possible.

The bloc itself has called on tech giants to help address the talent crunch within the sector as it becomes increasingly digital and data-driven.

This will not only enable the EU to better deal with future public health crises but also to better equip it to tackle other issues such as the digital transformation or the energy transition.

- The full report, with specifications, solutions and case studies can be found here.

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