Building a Common European Pandemic Response Report

A report on the acute priorities for managing and exiting the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe has been published by the Digital Health Advisory Group for Europe (DHAGE). The report aims to propose cooperative solutions in the context of digital health challenges in Europe during the pandemic response. Furthermore, the implications on the use of health and social data for prevention, public health, clinical and research purposes were also addressed.

The three COVID-19 related challenges were:

1. Nurturing the ongoing digital transformation of healthcare accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis
2. Creating digital tools for managing the pandemic and preparing for future health threats
3. The framework for cross-border exchange of health and social data post-COVID-19

The report highlights four calls to action and cooperation for pandemic response that can be summarised as the following:

1. An urgent need to prepare the infrastructure, legislation, and reimbursement structures for the long-term integration of temporary changes in mainstream care.
2. Nations to work collegiately, and cooperate both within and between countries, including the voluntary and private sectors.
3. The European Health Data Space must be ambitious: opportunities in the secondary use of health data should be explored further, using Codes of Conduct and even creating a GDPR 2.0 for Health.
4. There is a need to invest in skills and literacy for digital health and data, as well as in a dialogue with the public.

DHAGE involves a wider group of key decision-makers in Europe with a focus on strengthening European cooperation and facilitating synergies between the work of the European Union, the World Health Organization, their member states, and the healthcare communities and stakeholder networks powered by HIMSS in Europe. DHAGE meetings are hosted by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and HIMSS who co-chair the group.