EUHA networks meet in Berlin to promote high-value care through digital tools and Europe-wide data exchange. True to the EUHA motto “Improving outcomes for today’s and tomorrow’s patients”, members of the Digital Health and Data Network (DHDN) and the Learning In ValuE (LIVE) working group of the European University Hospital Alliance met at Charité to plan the next steps for projects in the field of digital patient-oriented medicine and to exchange expert knowledge.
A key opportunity addressed by the Digital Health and Data Network is the development of the European Health Data Space (EHDS). The network is an official advisor to the European Commission – consultation on the EHDS (TEHDAS) and aims to contribute to the EU Commission’s practical implementation of the European Health Data Space based on the experiences with the Europe-wide exchange of health data. “The creation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) is one of the EU Commission’s priorities for the coming years. A common European data space will foster better exchange and access to different types of high-quality structured health data (EHRs, genomics, patient registries, etc.) to support healthcare delivery as well as health research and policy. The COVID-19 pandemic has just shown us how important such sharing is – in such a crisis, data can literally save lives, explains Dr Peter Gocke, who launched the DHDN in 2019 and has been leading it since.
One example of the use of digital solutions to improve clinical care is the collection of Patient-Reported Outcome Measurements (PROMs). In order to continuously improve the quality of treatment, patients are regularly asked about their health and quality of life and the course of recovery. Doctors in turn draw conclusions from this for discussions with patients and for quality conferences, in which the results of a group of patients are compared and approaches for improvement are developed.
Together with other European organisations, the Learning In ValuE (LIVE) working group is implementing the EU-funded project H2O – Health Outcomes Observatory. “The aim of the project is to create a standardised data management and infrastructure system for patient-reported health characteristics throughout Europe, in order to significantly integrate the perspective of patients into therapy decisions and to achieve an improvement in health care from this perspective,” explains Claudia Hartmann, who is leading the project on the introduction of PROMs at the Charité. Other projects that the working group is pushing ahead with are the Healthcare Transformation Academy, a virtual academy for the further education of healthcare professionals with a value-based approach, and the founding of a high-value care Young Researchers Forum.
In joint sessions, in which colleagues from the nine university hospitals of the EUHA participated both on-site and digitally, the experts from both working groups also exchanged views on the design of trustworthy science and the use of FAIR Data. The QUEST Centre of the Charité under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ulrich Dirnagl also participated in this. A special concern of the EUHA working meetings is also to get to know the respective partner organisation better. Thus, the European guests also visited the Enhanced Recovery after Intensive Care (ERIC) project and the Berlin Simulation and Training Centre (BEST).
“Topics such as the creation of a European Health Data Space or the development of common standards in patient care, medical teaching and responsible biomedical research can only be advanced together. The EUHA offers an excellent framework for developing innovative solutions with the expertise of leading European university hospitals,” said Prof.
Axel Radlach Pries, who welcomed the participants to the meeting over dinner, summarising the potential of the exchange of experts.