Background information: DigitalHealthEurope twinning

About DigitalHealthEurope project

Digital Health Europe is funded under the Horizon 2020 Programme and it aims at supporting large-scale deployment of digital solutions for person-centered integrated care. This will be achieved by identifying, analyzing and facilitating the replication of impactful best practices, twining schemes and mobilization of stakeholders, thanks to the consortium’s exceptional expertise. Moreover, the project will facilitate the forming of collaboration platforms on key aspects of the digital transformation of health and care priorities of the Digital Single Market. Partners have engaged to work on several Digital Transformation of Health and Care priorities, starting from the citizens secure access to European Health Records and sharing their health data, better data to advance research, improvement of digital tools for citizen empowerment and person-centered integrated care interaction between patients and healthcare providers.

The CEI Executive Secretariat will participate in the identification of European digital services for person-centered integrated care, and of funding support service for person-centered integrated care initiatives, in elaboration and promotion of building blocks and finally in bringing together national and regional initiatives on citizens’ access and management of their health data. Last but not least, thanks to its Member Countries, the CEI provides a very suitable framework for policy dialogue, knowledge sharing and cross-fertilization. Hence, the CEI will also ensure outreach to its well-established networks in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

https://digitalhealtheurope.eu

What exactly are twinnings?

Twinnings are a mechanism for facilitating the transfer and implementation of digitally-enabled innovative practices from one region to another. The approach has been successfully applied in a number of EU projects and studies, including the ScaleAHA study, which funded 20 twinnings.

The region/country with the innovative practice is called Twinning Originator, and the implementing region/country is referred to as Twinning Adopter. There can be more than one Twinning Adopter per twinning. In some cases, third parties may be involved, e.g. as an external facilitator or as tenderer/Twinning Contractor.

Interested organisations and individuals will first exchange ideas on twinning solutions which they can offer or would like to adopt. A twinning marketplace is set up by DigitalHealthEurope to facilitate the matchmaking process. Potential Twinning Originators can post about their available twinning solutions, and those wishing to be Twinning Adopters can specify their twinning solution requirements.

Twinning Activities may include, for example, hosting meetings, technical groups, travelling, acquiring licenses, paying fees for professional services, etc. Twinnings typically last up to one year, depending on complexity and Twinning Type.

More details about these twinnings are available at:

https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/twinnings/about-twinnings.html
https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/twinnings.html

What is the funding?

DigitalHealthEurope will fund more than 45 twinnings. The total budget for all twinnings to be funded in this call is €932,000. Depending on the type and ambition, the budget per twinning may range from €5,000 for knowledge exchange & training up to €43,000 for full adoption of the digital solution.

What types of twinnings are being funded?

Twinnings range from knowledge exchange to adaptation or adoption of the transferred solution and can be grouped into four types: knowledge exchange and training, adaptation, partial adoption, and full adoption/acquisition.

Details about these types are available at https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/twinnings/twinning-types.html

What can a twinning solution look like?

Twinnings can focus on different Twinning Solutions. Examples of possible Twinning Solutions and topics are provided below.

Priority 1: Citizens’ secure access to and sharing of health data across borders

► Citizens’ secure access to their health data - e.g., via secure online portal, citizen’ access to electronic health records, personal health records, shared with health professionals
► Interoperable electronic health records deployed at national and regional level enabling citizens' secure access to and sharing of health data
► General Data Protection Regulation-compliant, secure health data exchange
► Citizen-enabled sharing of health data across borders: patient summary and/or ePrescription, discharge letter, medical images, lab results

Priority 2: Better data to promote research, disease prevention and personalised health and care

► ICT infrastructure for personalised medicine, -omics databanks, biomedical infrastructures
► National/regional genomics strategy (incl. digital genomics)
► Whole genome sequencing
► Use of real-world data (RWD)
► Health data analytics (Artificial Intelligence, algorithm development and calibration, machine learning, risk stratification tools, etc.)

Priority 3: Digital tools for citizen empowerment and for person-centred care

Citizen/patient-focused solutions:

► ICT support to health education, digital health literacy
► Digital tools supporting proactive prevention
► mHealth systems, wearable devices for monitoring and prevention, alerts & reminders
► Digital tools for patient feedback and reporting of outcomes
Professionals’ solutions:
► Advanced ICT for Integrated Care, incl. integration of health and social care services
► Interoperable digital solutions for person-centred care
► Regional and national Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and ePrescription solutions enabling person-centred care
► Digital shared care plan (e.g., support to multi-disciplinary team)

Where can I find a suitable twinning partner?

To facilitate the forming of twinnings, DigitalHealthEurope offers an online twinning marketplace where Twinning Originators can post about their available Twinning Solutions, and Twinning Adopters can specify their requirements. This will enable matchmaking and preparation of a twinning tender.

The twinning marketplace can be accessed via https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/twinnings/twinning-marketplace.html

Participation in the marketplace is not a prerequisite for participation in this call.

What else is there to know?

A twinning schedule is provided below. If you want to participate and find out more about twinnings, visit the DigitalHealthEurope website or contact the project at

https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/contact.html.

NC Letter Call Twinnings DIGITAL HEALTH EUROPE