Rationale of the newly established Consortium for ‘Europe-wide Innovative Procurement of Health and Care Innovation’ (EURIPHI)
The unquestionably needed reform of health and care systems in Europe requires the adoption of innovation and integrated solutions. One way forward is to rethink procurement policies. A positive transformation in this area would be to elevate procurement practices towards an approach that awards the value offered by innovation or integrated solution. The value will be awarded by multi-disciplinary teams responding to specific patients, health care actors and system needs, while taking societal and economic perspectives into account.
The EU Coordination and Support Action (CSA) under Horizon 2020 ‘Innovation in Healthcare’ is a highly welcomed initiative. This EU initiative aims at the adoption of innovation in health and care systems and advancing procurement of innovation practices. In response to this initiative, a consortium of 25 leading organizations in procurement and health care has been created. The consortium proposal was approved by the European Commission in September 2018 and the EURIPHI project ‘European wide Innovative Procurement of Health and care Innovation’ (EURIPHI) will run from January 2019 until June 2020. A sustainable EURIPHI organization is planned to continue the activities in the following years.
