In addressing health risks associated with heatwaves, air pollution, wildfire emissions, and pollen, the implementation of comprehensive, transformative adaptation remains largely unreported in Europe.

HOPE is an associated partner in HealthIntelAct, a research initiative funded by Horizon Europe through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Doctoral Networks.

At the heart of HealthIntelAct are 17 fellows pursuing PhD trajectories, each working on groundbreaking research projects focused on critical challenges within three key areas: People, Planet, and Prosperity. These interdisciplinary projects, spanning multiple countries and sectors, aim to develop actionable solutions for inclusive, sustainable, and resilient health systems.

Funded by the European Union under grant No. 101168576. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union.

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In addressing health risks associated with heatwaves, air pollution, wildfire emissions, and pollen, the implementation of comprehensive, transformative adaptation remains largely unreported in Europe.

Running from 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2028, healthRiskADAPT is a Horizon Europe project aiming to develop and implement a health risk assessment system for the Mediterranean, Alpine and Continental regions. Its contents and tools will be in line with Climate-ADAPT described adaptation support tool.

By inegrating technical, nature-based, and social solutions, the project aims to empower local authorities to assess vulnerabilities, prioritise actions, and enhance preparedness. This comprehensive approach includes developing user-friendly toolkits and engaging stakeholders to ensure effective implementation.

In the project, HOPE will support various activities, including the creation of use scenarios, the development of a vision for adaptation strategies, the development of communication campaigns, stakeholder engagement, and communication and dissemination activities.

Read more and discover healthRiskADAPT website.

Follow the project on Linkedin: healthRiskADAPT.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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InnoFacilitator aims to create a community to promote innovative procurement in the field of health through business support, tailor-made training courses, coaching for buyers and solution providers, and the creation of collaborative tools. The overall objective is to raise awareness, increase the skills and knowledge of stakeholders on innovative procurement, and collaborate to co-designate the Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PPI).

InnoFacilitator is funded by Horizon Europe Programme 2021-2022 European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE).

With HOPE as a partner, the InnoFacilitator Consortium brings together seven European partners coordinated by Medicen Paris Region (MEDICEN) with expertise in innovation procurement, including healthcare clusters with MEDICEN and Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero (BIPCA SPA); innovation and PPI support company with the Science & Innovation Link Office SL (SILO); and public/private healthcare buyers with the Réseau des acheteurs hospitaliers IDF (GIP RESAH), and the European Regional and Local Health Authorities ASBL (EUREGHA). The European Health Public Procurement Alliance (EHPPA) also participates in the project as an affiliated entity linked to GIP RESAH.

HOPE is responsible for supporting community building (WP2) and promoting the project among the HOPE community and networks through communication support, awareness campaigns, scaling activities across Europe, and using its community-platform technology (WP2, WP4). HOPE will also identify and scout suppliers and buyers for the matchmaking event (WP3).

InnoFacilitator will run for 24 months until 30 September 2024.

Follow the project via its website and LinkedIn profile!

Project news and updates

CONFERENCE: Scaling-up Innovation Procurement in Europe

On 18 June 2024, a conference dedicated to advancing innovation in public procurement will take place in Brussels, bringing together key stakeholders from across Europe. The conference is set to be a cornerstone for professionals in the procurement sector, offering unparalleled opportunities for learning, networking, and collaboration!

What to Expect:

• Expert Insights: Hear from leading voices in the field, including EU project leaders and European Commission members.
• Innovative Discussions: Participate in interactive sessions like the World Café, focusing on themes such as best practices in innovation procurement and the role of technology.
• Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of professionals and stakeholders in the procurement sector.

Learn more here.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101070831.

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FLASH, a 4-year project funded by Horizon Europe, held its inaugural meeting on 13 and 14 February 2023 in Verona, Italy. The kick-off meeting was hosted by the Università degli Studi di Verona, the project coordinators.

One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of flexibility in the funding and organisation of health systems. European countries responded quickly to this extreme event, by expanding the number of financial resources available for health care and reallocating financial and human resources. However, there are several other challenges for healthcare systems that require efficient and flexible financing mechanisms to be successfully addressed.

FLASH will undertake a comprehensive analysis of healthcare financing mechanisms in Europe and, by employing a wide range of methodological approaches, it aims to provide evidence for the ability of current financing mechanisms and contracts to address such challenges and to study solutions that may yield more effective, efficient, and equitable health care systems.

The project brings together 16 partners (including HOPE) from 9 European countries and it intends to be a game-changer in the European integrated healthcare system. The consortium includes universities, research centres, non-profit organisations, and institutions involved in the organisation and provision of healthcare in several European countries. HOPE will contribute mainly to dissemination- and policy-related tasks.

Read more and discover FLASH website, and follow FLASH on Twitter @EUFlashproject and LinkedIn!

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101095424.

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On 26 January 2023 DIOPTRA, a Horizon Europe project, kicked off in Athens and online. Over the next four years, HOPE will be part of the 28-partner project consortium coordinated by the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), which focuses on early dynamic screening for colorectal cancer (CRC).

Statistics show that colorectal cancer is the third most common tumour in men and the second in women, accounting for 10% of all tumours worldwide. It ranks second in cancer-related deaths at 9.4%, after lung cancer. While CRC is now considered to be a highly preventable disease, several factors, such as long waiting times for colonoscopies, a lack of robust infrastructure for sample analysis, and patient-related barriers (such as fear, socio-demographic, psychosocial, economic, or geographic) deter systematic monitoring and follow-up.

In this context, DIOPTRA aspires to become a driving force in creating change in colorectal cancer screening and everyday medical practice through accessible and non-invasive risk estimation, employing straightforward liquid biopsies to stratify citizens in need of a definitive assessment. Via DIOPTRA, screening and early detection may become faster, more precise, personalised, accessible, and affordable, breaking the path to better health.

Against the backdrop of taxing procedures hindering citizens from seeking screening on a scheduled basis and the lack of EU-wide standardised screening, DIOPTRA aims to introduce a front-line clinical decision support tool that will consider risk factors and protein biomarkers to aid the identification of high-risk cases in actual need of a colonoscopy.

The DIOPTRA consortium consists of 28 partners from 15 countries, including universities (medical and technical), clinical partners such as hospitals, companies specialised in innovation, AI, data security, legal aspects, and biological data analysis, policymakers, and a European organisation (HOPE). Our role will consist in supporting the project’s dissemination, communication, and policy aims.

DIOPTRA website: https://www.dioptra-project.eu/.

Follow DIOPTRA on Twitter and LinkedIn!

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101096649.

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On 15-16 February 2023, the XpanDH project’s kick-off meeting took place in Lisbon, Portugal. Led by ISCTE Knowledge and Innovation Centre, the overall aim of the project is prepare, support and empower individuals and organisations to be ready to adopt the European Electronic Health Record Exchange Format (EEHRxF). This will be achieved by exploiting a “network of networks” approach and developing a vibrant ecosystem.

XpanDH is a 2-year Coordination and Support Action financed by the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The project brings together research organisations, companies, intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder associations (including patients and healthcare providers) who will jointly mobilise capacity to deploy interoperable digital health solutions based on shared adoption of the EEHRxF. The latter will be crucial for the successful implementation of priority domains in the European Health Data Space.

The projects main ambitions are establishing and sustaining a scalable public infrastructure for digital health innovation; demonstrating feasibility of real-life interoperable digital solutions for cross-border use by individuals,researchers, health services and the workforce; creating and fostering a Pan-European ecosystem of digital health; conceiving and validating a framework for enabling further exploitation of the public infrastructure for digital health innovation. So-called X-bundles will establish common ground for eHealth interoperability by using common international standards and formed connections to ensure that the exchange of health data takes place smoothly. This will benefit users of MyHealth@EU services, the latter already comprising ePrescription and patient summaries and, as part of the EHDS, expanding to include laboratory reports, imageology and hospital discharge letters.

HOPE’s role in the consortium (comprised of 26+ members) will be to support tasks involving the expansion of relevant networks, as well as communication and dissemination activities. Inter alia, this will involve reaching out to hospitals across Europe to support identification and analysis of existing practices and standards. Promoting participatory involvement of end users, XpanDH will build on and process the results of past and ongoing eHealth interoperability projects and services.

Be sure to follow XpanDH on Twitter and LinkedIn, or check the website for in-depth project information and news!

XpanDH kick-off Press Release

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101095594.

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When drafting and approving the current EU Framework for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe, the European Commission introduced a new funding stream: 5 missions to find “concrete solutions to some of our greatest challenges,” and deliver tangible results by 2030.

In the case of lung cancer (LC), early detection can help reduce mortality by shifting the focus away from the late-stage, largely incurable profile of the disease to the early stage when more options are available to improve patients’ outcomes and quality of life. However, current methods, like Low-Dose Computed Tomography (LDCT), are not administered with sufficient precision. This is due in part to an incomplete picture of the risk factors and cellular processes associated with the onset and prognosis of lung cancer. While the high-risk link between tobacco smoking and LC has long been established, we know less about other contributing factors connected to increasing age, indoor and outdoor pollutants, multi-morbidities, genes, and differences in biological pathways.

From 2023 to 2027, LUCIA will work to contribute to the EU Mission Cancer along with other projects and researchers across Europe. We will focus on the risks associated with developing Lung Cancer and its subtypes, as well as the methods best suited for prompt diagnoses.

The approach includes:

• using data health, lifestyle, and environment data from medical records, biobanks, and from large-scale epidemiological and clinical studies;
• using AI, imagine, and wearables, among other technologies, to investigate the impact and interplay between genetic predispositions, lifestyle factors, and environmental stressors in the development of lung cancer;
• investigating cellular pathways adjusted to lung cancer subtypes;
• developing Value-Based Care Models to provide data-driven recommendations to guide screening recommendations; and
• contributing to the creation of new guidelines that identify evidence-backed risk factors.

LUCIA’s 22-member consortium is led by Technion University (Israel). It includes partners from across Europe specialising in lung cancer research, diagnostic technologies, AI ethics and legal frameworks, and EU policy. In addition, four implementing hospitals from Belgium (Walloon region), Latvia, and Spain (Andalusia and Basque regions), will be involved.

HOPE is leading work package 6, which oversees the LUCIA’s communication and dissemination activities, as well as the project’s potential contributions.

Be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about our research and findings over the next four years!

Read more and discover LUCIA website.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101096473.

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PROJECT NEWS & UPDATES

ABOUT SAFEST

On 1 June 2022, HOPE and consortium partners kicked off SAFEST, a four-year project funded under the new cycle of the EU’s framework for research and innovation, Horizon Europe.

When considering surgical safety, SAFEST will look at the entire journey before, during, and after surgery (often referred to as perioperative safety and care). Especially considering how several studies have shown that most adverse events linked to surgery occur outside the operating room.

Our project seeks to play a decisive role in improving patient safety and it will do so by (1) identifying and agreeing on a unified set of perioperative practices based on evidence, and (2) promoting their implementation across Europe involving healthcare professionals, patients, and other stakeholders.

The main objective is to improve adherence to evidence-based standardised patient safety practices in perioperative care by 15% and reduce the frequency of surgical complications by 8% after 18 months of a multicomponent intervention.

SAFEST 10-member consortium is led by Fundación Avedis Donabedian in Barcelona and comprises research institutions, hospitals in The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, and Czechia, and policy organisations. HOPE will lead tasks on communications and contribute to other Work Packages with surveys, as well as help identify existing perioperative standards as part of a multi-disciplinary group.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, or check our website for interesting blog posts, in-depth project information, and news!

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101057825.

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EUnetHTA 21 work will build on the achievements and lessons learned from the EUnetHTA Joint Actions and focus on supporting a future EU HTA system under the HTA Regulation.

The EUnetHTA 21 joint consortium is led by ZIN (The Netherlands) and includes the following HTA agencies: AEMPS (Spain), AIFA (Italy), AIHTA (Austria), GBA (Germany), HAS (France), INFARMED (Portugal), IQWIG (Germany), KCE (Belgium), NCPE (Ireland), NIPN (Hungary), NOMA (Norway) and TLV (Sweden).

More information on this service contract and on the activities that will be implemented will be available here on the EUnetHTA website.

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For many patients, the hospital is challenging due to the busy, unfamiliar, and stressful nature of the environment. For those with dementia, the experience can be exacerbated by cognitive impairment and behavioural or psychological symptoms, which can make visits frightening, distressing, and disorientating. 

The MOOC provides much-needed education, design guidance, and awareness for an important but underdeveloped area of design. Furthermore, they are useful for a wide range of stakeholders in developing their overall knowledge around dementia and the built environment; for hospital management when setting strategic objectives or developing briefs; and for facilities management, healthcare staff, and design professionals involved in new-build or retrofit projects.  

Funded by EIT Health, as part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the course was thus developed by TrinityHaus (TCD), in partnership with HOPE (European Hospital and Healthcare Federation), Tallaght University Hospital and Hospital Clínic de Barcelona to disseminate their existing research on creating dementia-friendly hospitals/health environments.   

More information & registration for the MOOC

An online information session was organised on 6 December 2022 for those interested in dementia, or designing for dementia, with the objectives of: 

• Introducing the main contributors to the MOOC; 
• Outlining the background research underpinning the course; 
• Providing a course overview; 
• Providing information on how to partake in this free course. 

This course is aimed at a wide range of stakeholders and will develop their knowledge of dementia and the built environment, including: 

• Hospital management when setting strategic objectives or developing briefs; 
• Facilities management; 
• Healthcare staff working in the hospital; 
• Design professionals involved in new-build or retrofit projects. 

The development phase has concluded, but the MOOCs are available in the link above.

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