The unquestionably needed reform of health and care systems in Europe requires the adoption of innovation and integrated solutions. EURIPHI is an EU initiative that aims to support building out a Europe-wide community of practice of public procurement organizations in the health and care sector which aims to address common unmet needs and shortcomings in the current health systems and care delivery by using innovation procurement using an EU co-funded instrument of Pre-commercial procurement’ (PCP) or ‘Public procurement of innovative solutions’ (PPI).
1. Objectives of the Horizon 2020 CSA ‘Innovation in Healthcare’
The main objective of this CSA as outlined by the European Commission is to create a Europe-wide consortium of public procurers and healthcare providers in the health and social care sector, which will define unmet needs in today’s procurement practices in order to implement innovation and integrated solutions using ‘Pre-commercial procurement’ (PCP)1 or ‘Public procurement of innovative solutions’ (PPI)2 in health and care systems. The related calls for projects will be launched in 2020 and co-funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020.
The CSA focuses on preparing the ground for:
A PCP/PPI to implement rapid diagnostic tools for infectious diseases in clinical practice
In addition, the public health sector procurers should develop specifications that are suitable for Europe-wide deployment of the rapid diagnostics in the field of infectious diseases.
One or more PCP/PPIs to drive the shift towards patient centric integrated care in health and social care systems reform
Clinicians, patients, public procurers in healthcare systems, health and social care facility managers, and health authorities’ insurers/payers should cooperate to identify the gaps and needs that will lead to the development of new innovative solutions for patient-centred integrated healthcare.
(PCP)1: see definition of European Commission (EC). The EC funds 90% of the costs of a PCP.
(PPI)2: see definition of EC. The EC funds 35% of the cost of a PPIs.
2. Key Objectives of the EURIPHI Consortium
In the EURIPHI project, the partner organizations involved or interested in value-based procurement and PPI/PCPs are teaming up around the novel approach of Most Economically Advantageous Tendering Value Based Procurement of Innovation Solutions (MEAT VBPPI) to achieve the following goals:
- Establish a sustainable Community of Practice using innovative procurement methods, such as MEAT value-based procurement of innovation and integrated solutions in health and care systems and develop legal guidance for efficient cross-border, value driven procurement with localized decision making;
- Adapt the existing tools, perform market consultations and deploy cross-border Value Based PPI/PCP testing as learning cases in the field of rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases and, new models of patient centred integrated care;
- Developing an EURIPHI Network, a network of representatives of (regional) health authorities, policymakers, and payers who, in collaboration with other key stakeholders, will further prioritize investments and foster the deployment of Value Based PPI/PCP.
These key objectives are designed to build a foundation for future EU cross-border PPI/PCP.
