The Maltese Presidency proposes to organise a High-Level Conference on eHealth in keeping with the practice established by first-semester Presidencies since 2007. The main objective will be to bring together high-level policymakers from all EU MS and other key stakeholders to discuss the most important current issues of common interest regarding the effective, safe and economic application of ICT to the planning, delivery and evaluation of health services. High-level delegates will be invited from all EU MS, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland & USA. The Presidency will co-locate the event with a Health IT conference & exhibition organised by HIMSS Europe. Partnering with HIMSS will help reach a wider and more diverse audience, including key stakeholders from the health IT industry, allowing EU eHealth policies and the outcome of relevant EU-funded research and innovation to reach a wider audience. The co-located events will be known collectively as “eHealth Week 2017” (EHW17). The EHW17 programme will be both diverse and comprehensive, highlighting developments taking place in various aspects of eHealth such as legal, organisational, semantic and technical. The overarching theme of EHW17 is “Data for Health: the key to personalised sustainable care”. Subjects discussed will include: - Patient access to and sharing of health data - Moving health data safely onto cloud infrastructure - Sharing personal health data across country borders - Improving effectiveness, safety and privacy of mHealth - Scaling up digital innovation for health and care - International cooperation in eHealth - Smart environments & integrated care - Data management and analytics for personalised medicine & public health policy EHW17 will include an Informal Working Lunch for high-level delegates, during which they will be invited to discuss the health-related aspects of the mid-term review of the Digital Single Market. Both Presidency and Commission will have a stand on the exhibition floor.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Europe with an expected increase of about 25% by 2035. A wide and unacceptable variability in terms of access to research, innovation and quality care exists between and within countries. Possible solutions are an increase in knowledge by funding research, and a more equitable transfer of what we already know to everyone. Comprehensive Cancer Centers and Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks may be the core of CCIs that deliver quality care and provide resources to improve and integrate care, research and education. Data already available confirm that the level of "CCI maturity" in Member States is widely different, from some countries lacking CCIs completely. A European initiative, implemented in all Member States, based on a capacity building programme (CBP), will help reduce inequalities, in the context of other actions ongoing, such as CRANE, JANE and UNCAN. CBP is a complex intervention that requires multiple and integrated actions delivered to all the relevant stakeholders. CBP will be designed with an inclusive approach, tailored to the baseline status, capable of creating a change and improvement in research and care, with greater integration between them, supported by an education programme. It will operate at various levels: Individuals, Institutions and Systems. The CSA will implement the following steps: define CCI Maturity Model including quality indicators; profile the CCIs in each MS and a few ACs in terms of CCI presence and levels of maturity; design tailored CBP interventions, giving priority to MSs without any CCI; deliver online training courses open to teams in all MSs and ACs, implement targeted onsite interventions; scale up and sustain development; disseminate, exploit and report results. The CSA will maximize impact by bridging with the work of ongoing EU cancer research projects. National focal points will be key informants in making the links between the CSA, the EC and MSs.

Cancer- healthcare, research and innovation face core common challenges, such as fragmentation of initiatives and distancing from important stakeholders, requiring coordinated solutions. These challenges are recognized in Horizon Europe’s Cancer Mission Implementation Plan and in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. The proposal Establishing of Cancer Mission Hubs: Networks and Synergies (ECHoS) represents a unique opportunity to coordinate R&I and Healthcare actions on cancer with policy-making processes creating transnational communication & collaboration networks aligned with Cancer Mission objectives. Experiences shows that the setup and implementation of innovative health solutions are more likely to be successful when a broad range of stakeholders and decision-makers from the public and private sectors are part of the process. By fostering the creation of National Cancer Mission Hubs (NCMHs) in member states and associated countries ECHoS will create the conditions for organized stakeholders and individual citizens to collaborate and engage in policy dialogues. The implementation of the Cancer Mission objectives will promote more resilient and people-centric healthcare and research systems. ECHoS will produce (i) general models and guidelines for the creation of sustainable NCMHs, (ii) a knowledge exchange programme to support development of NCMHs competences, (iii) impact models and training sets to help efficiently engaging with distinct stakeholders, (iv) a toolkit for synergies to help NCMH engaging in collaborative work with individual European Initiatives, (v) a business continuity model envisaging long-term sustainability of a EU network of NCMHs and (vi) a calendar of events to create awareness on NCMHs and to help closing the gap in citizens’ participation in cancer policy. In summary, ECHoS will create conditions for NCMHs to be Mission Cancer advocates in MS/AC and set the pace for the development of a transnational network of NCMHs in a second phase.

Oral diseases and conditions are the 3rd most expensive diseases to treat in the EU. They affect about half of the EU population. As highlighted in the 2021 WHO Oral Health Resolution, there are major challenges in the financing of oral health care: in deviation from the UN and WHO goal of Universal Health Coverage, many EU citizens do not have access to essential oral health care without financial hardship. This causes detrimental impacts for the individual citizen, while increasing costs and wasting resources on the macro level. Research-policy gaps and research-practice gaps keep triggering inertia and inaction instead of addressing the persistent, albeit largely preventable, burden of oral diseases. To this end, the PRUDENT (Prioritization, incentives and Resource use for sUstainable DENTistry) project aims to develop and implement an innovative and context-adaptive framework for optimized financing of oral care. PRUDENT brings together top investigators from prestigious universities, public authorities and policymakers, civil society and patient organizations, health insurers, and health professionals, to achieve a step change in collective problem solving. Given the comprehensiveness of the topic, PRUDENT uses a targeted approach that is entirely focused on four major root-causes underlying the current limitations of oral care financing. Using a mixed-methods research approach, PRUDENT will: (i) co-develop oral health system performance indicators and implement them in EU-wide monitoring framework; (ii) conduct real-world and lab experiments to identify improved oral care financing mechanisms; (iii) leverage regulatory learning, needs-adaptive resource planning and deliberative priority setting to enhance the improvement of oral care financing. The knowledge gained will be merged into the PRUDENT Financing Companion with policy briefs and decision aid tools for concretely actionable and context-adaptive improvement of oral care financing.

Oral diseases and conditions affect more than 3.5 billion people worldwide. They are the 3rd most expensive diseases to treat in the EU and disproportionally affect vulnerable groups. In deviation from the UN and WHO goal of Universal Health Coverage, many EU citizens do not have access to quality oral care without financial hardship. To this end, the DELIVER (DELiberative ImproVEment of oRal care quality) project aims to enhance the quality of oral care through deliberative dialogue and action involving citizens, patients, providers, payers and policymakers. DELIVER will create a synergistic problem-solving ecosystem to convert deliberative dialogues into meaningful improvement of oral care quality. DELIVER brings together top investigators from prestigious universities, civil society and patient organizations, health professionals, policymakers, and SME/industry to achieve a step change in collective problem solving. Given the comprehensiveness of the topic, DELIVER uses a targeted approach that is entirely focused on five major root-causes underlying the current limitations of oral care systems. Using a mixed-methods research approach, DELIVER will co-develop and co-produce new quality improvement approaches in three phases. The 1st phase involves situational analysis, consenting of core quality indicators, and development of a EU-wide monitoring framework. The 2nd phase involves in-depth analysis of select quality improvement approaches: (i) PROMs/PREMs-based quality improvement in dental practices; (ii) community-based quality improvement for vulnerable groups; (iii) quality-oriented commissioning of oral health services. The regulatory determinants of oral care quality improvement will be scrutinized. In the 3rd and final phase, the knowledge gained in the 1st and 2nd phases will be merged into the DELIVER Quality Toolkit with manuals and digital tools for concretely actionable and context-adaptive approaches for oral care quality improvement.