Digital Health and Self-Care
Digitalization is a great opportunity to improve the well-being of people. It can help them take ownership of their health, facilitate self-diagnosis, positively impact health habits or behaviors, facilitate treatment adherence, or allow for easy interaction with healthcare professionals or other people with similar health problems.
Paving the way for the digitalisation of healthcare
Due to the economic situation and, more recently, the COVID-19 crisis, developing Europe’s capabilities in the digital space has become even more necessary and urgent. The COVID-19 pandemic has led many governments to rethink the role of innovation and digital technology for health and wellbeing. It has also led to an accelerated shift in how companies have approached digital adoption strategies in response to increased people’s needs.
Harnessing the potential of new technologies in the field of self-care will facilitate the transition to more efficient and preventive healthcare systems and improve access to care while leading to an overall reduction in costs. To do this, Europe must ensure an appropriate and proportionate regulatory framework fostering the trust and security of European citizens so that they can safely benefit from the advantages brought by digital transformation and new technologies.
A digital strategy for self-care
AESGP supports the various initiatives undertaken at European level and is committed to playing its role in building an innovative digital health for Europe. To this end, we have developed a digital strategy for self-care. The paper identifies some regulatory gaps, highlights several requests for improvement, and offers enablers to drive needed regulatory changes and initiatives in five areas:
- Data, Real World Data / Real World Evidence (RWD/RWE)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Product and Disease Information
- E-commerce
- Digital Workforce Capacity Building
Industry, regulators, legislators and society as a whole must work together to accelerate the effort if Europe is to become a leader in the digital health space.