FIGAROVOX / TRIBUNE- While the health crisis has accelerated the development of digital health, the head of the Sabines Institute has called on European leaders to seize the sector in the future.
Olivier Papau is President of the Sabines Institute and Professor of Management Sciences at Purdue University. recently posted The new digital disruption: How digital is exploding inequality (Bucket Chastel, 2020).
If there is one topic that has been driving political debate for months, it is the topic of sovereignty. All the main candidates for the presidential elections aim to ensure this by creating a French and European “GAMAM”, but few of them lay out a real, clear and legible roadmap in this field. However, it is one of the central issues of our economic future: without champions of sufficient size to compete with the American or Asian giants, Europe and France will not be able to impose their own economic, technological, or moral standards in many areas, especially in those areas. Strategy like health.
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The pandemic has replaced health as a central component of our societies. Not only has it become a top priority for voters again, but it has also been involved in accelerating the digital health uses for patients: the number of teleconsultations has tripled since 2020. At the same time, e-health technology solutions are becoming more widespread. From diagnostic assistance to developing connected tools that continuously record patient data, to printing artificial cells or treating mental illnesses using virtual reality technologies, European companies are constantly innovating and thus building an ecosystem with amazing development potential. These new applications promise a radically enhanced approach to medicine. They will not only give prominence to prevention and prediction, but also improve the follow-up and treatment of patients with temporary or chronic diseases, prevent their appearance and provide a personalized service adapted to every need. It accelerates the emergence of modern and advanced medicine, in which medical time is improved, services are better distributed and efficiency is significantly improved.
Creating Europe for e-health with the emergence of several European champions with a global dimension is an economic challenge.
Olivier Papau
The European continent has the resources on its soil to be one of the actors but also to remain in control of this revolution. From the UK to Finland, via Portugal and Switzerland, 441 mature health tech companies appear to be able to offer a holistic, interconnected view of health. These companies, with innovative and integrated technologies, can constitute a real and credible competition for the big tech companies, if they can group together under the auspices of the major European companies. There are five companies that meet the required size and development characteristics that can play the role of a European engine capable of driving the European ecosystem. Headquartered in the United Kingdom – a highly conducive environment for the development of e-health innovations that offer the continent’s most significant financing and growth potential – Health Hero is already a giant European tele-consultation company meeting the expectations of tens of millions of patients in Europe. Other potential champions are Doctolib (based in France), Kry (based in Sweden), BioCartis (based in Switzerland) or even Ada Health (based in Germany).
The creation of Europe for e-health through the emergence of several European champions with a global dimension is also an economic issue. Networking these companies could, according to our estimates, lead to an increase of €144 billion in European GDP. In addition to solidifying our medical supremacy, this construction will generate a powerful increase in the well-being and quality of life of Europeans.
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The success of this project needs only one catalyst: organizational coordination. It is particularly expressed through the creation of the European Health Data Policy, highlighting the secure provision of European patient data, and ensuring linguistic and semantic interoperability between countries. It also requires defining a common development policy based on information exchange and innovation incubation processes. Finally, it is exemplified by the creation of a European E-Health Agreement aimed at structuring a common area in this area, regulated by the Health Systems Coordination Agency, awarding the number of exercises to practitioners and why not by defining a joint care basket that is eligible for compensation. This aspiration is far from utopian, all the foundations for its creation are on our continent, and it remains only to bring them together and coordinate them to transform the article. It is a question of validity and sovereignty that should preoccupy presidential election debates and beyond.
