European Procurers Platform - eHealth - Transforming the market for eHealth Solutions

Project Information

EPP - eHealth

Grant agreement ID: 644461

DOI

10.3030/644461

Project closed

EC signature date 5 December 2014

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 31 December 2016

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 771 625,00

EU contribution

€ 771 625,00

Coordinated by

BRAVOSOLUTION ESPANA SAU
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EPP - eHealth (European Procurers Platform - eHealth - Transforming the market for eHealth Solutions)

Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) is a crucial challenge for public bodies. The “usual” way of purchasing goods is still based on the price of the product. Life cycle costing, supply chain analysis or group purchases are rarely used, which means opportunities to get innovative products that would give purchasers competitive advantage are missed. There is a need to start developing networks of procurers to enable procurers to identify common needs, conduct market analysis, understand the supply chain, use these tools to comprise a higher procurement volume, and have a bigger impact on suppliers. This can be obtained through PPI.
EPP-eHealth targeted to understand health care public procurers unmet needs in the eHealth domain. For that, a network of health care procurement organizations was created. This network allowed the consortium to identify common unmet needs, explore the best available solutions and stimulate the market . In addition, it created a PPI/PCP procurement strategy for the eHealth sector. To achieve these targets, the following work programme was implemented:
WP1. PROJECT COORDINATION related to the project coordination and management activities.
WP2. PPI CAPACITY/ NETWORK BUILDING related to internal capacity building in order to engage in two-way communication with stakeholders (buyers and suppliers). This was achieved through the implementation of the following activities:
Training and coaching on PPI through the 4 stakeholders workshops organised during the course of the project
Regular web-based dissemination though 8 dedicated newsletters
2 Community of Learning Visits as opportunities for collective learning on best practice case studies.
WP3. IDENTIFY UNMET NEEDS aimed to develop a credible, evidence-based, communication document on unmet needs to innovative companies and others that could offer innovative eHealth solutions.
WP4. MARKET SOUNDING highlighted the scale of the technology exploitation gap and allowed eHealth stakeholders to respond to the communication on unmet needs.
The action resulted in the following main project outcomes:
- Network of healthcare procurers that remains active after the project closure through the sustainability of the project online platform. This allows future collaboration and mobilization for eHealth procurement projects addressing the health care sector unmet needs
- Joint Statement of eHealth unmet needs. The EPP-eHealth network of healthcare procurers identified and validated common areas of unmet needs. The resulting document (Deliverable D3.4) can be downloaded from the project website. These are credible needs that stimulate the supply chain by giving confidence that the demand exist; thus contributing to mobilize the investment in innovation. This approach brings opportunities for the market, in particular for SMEs, which represent a large percentage of ICT solution providers.
- PPI / PCP Strategy for eHealth. The consortium developed a strategy to address the barriers to more rapid development and uptake of eHealth through demand-side actions such as PPI and PCP projects. This constitutes the Deliverable D4.4 and the final project output. The document summarizes the lessons learned from the project and identifies the demand-side measures that are needed to enable the healthcare sector to accelerate the development and adoption of ‘market-ready’ eHealth solutions through Innovation Procurement, and thus help to address the major challenges that are facing the healthcare sector in Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Project achievements explained on work package basis:
WP2. PPI CAPACITY/ NETWORK BUILDING Three workshops were organised during Period 2. The second PPI training workshop took place in January 2016 and recapped on key learning points from Workshop 1. It was also an opportunity to outline the principles of market engagement. The third PPI Training workshop was a major event co-organised with the EC that took place in Brussels in May 2016. It was a collaborative exchange workshop with invited presentations from other eHealth innovation procurement projects. Finally, the PPI Training workshop 4 took place in Liverpool in November 2016. It aimed to bring together the buyers (procurers) and suppliers of eHealth solutions to discuss about unmet needs and was used as a market test. 5 newsletters were produced in the second period. The initial CoL was organised to the Erasmus medical center in Rotterdam. The final Community of Learning Visit was hosted by Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. This final visit was an opportunity to hear about the eHealth activities taking place in the city/region.
WP3. IDENTIFY UNMET NEEDS During Period 2 online survey devoted to the buyers group was conducted. It focused on understanding the sector primary eHealth unmet needs as well as the barriers which hinder the implementation of Innovation Procurement. A major outcome was the Deliverable D3.4 Joint Statement of Unmet Needs that presents the eHealth unmet needs, invites other ambitions healthcare institutions across Europe to join to the Statement and lends their support to the broad communication of EPP-eHealth JSUN.
WP4. MARKET SOUNDING A PPI / PCP strategy for eHealth was developed. The document summarizes the lessons learned from the project and identifies the demand-side measures that are needed to enable the healthcare sector to accelerate the development and adoption of ‘market-ready’ eHealth solutions through Innovation Procurement and help to address the major challenges that are facing the healthcare sector in Europe.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

EPP-eHealth was an initial step in the right direction. Thanks to the implementation of the project strategy the following impacts were achieved:
- A change in the buying practices of public procurers in healthcare: Procurers learnt how to implement PPI and they are now more open to business partnership and to step out of their comfort zone when it comes to accelerate the procurement decision making process.
- Identification of supply side needs. The project events facilitated the dialogue between stakeholders and resulted an opportunity to discuss about the identified unmet needs, innovation procurement barriers and enablers and receive feedback from suppliers about their own claims and needs regarding to procurement in the EU public sector
- A network of procurers to jointly undertake a coordinated procurement action will be established. The project network of procurers developed the PPI/PCP Strategy for eHealth based on projects’ findings. This strategy outlines the challenges which have been identified and the demand-side measures Thanks to the sustainability of the website platform procurers and suppliers will continue to be connected beyond the project deadline. This would facilitate an increasing collaboration within the PPI domain
- Hospitals involved in the project will be ready to purchase new solutions based on their genuine needs. The EPP-eHealth has contributed to change the way of thinking at participating organisations and their linked contact networks. How they implement the PPI in the future will depend on the specific circumstances of each organisation (PPI maturity, policy strategy, policy support, resources…)

EPPeHelath major workshop. Brussels, May 2016

Innovation in eHealth

EPPeHealth Market test workshop. Liverpool, November 2016

Team picture Kick off meeting