Search Eucomed  

Eucomed press release 08/08 - Directive on the Application of Patients' Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare

• High standards for patient safety and equal access to innovative medical technologies
• Develop cooperation in e-health and Health Technology Assessment
• New Eucomed position paper on Health Technology Assessment released

Brussels, 1 July 2008 – Eucomed welcomes the adoption by the College of Commissioners of the draft proposal for a Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. Eucomed supports government policies that promote clinician choice and patient access to the benefits of safe and reliable medical technology. The association particularly welcomes the European Commission’s stance to ensure high standards for patient safety and quality of care across Europe.

As the voice of the medical technology industry in Europe, Eucomed urges the development of cooperation amongst Member States regarding e-health. Through its e-health solutions the medical technology industry demonstrates both its strength in terms of technology and its understanding of healthcare processes. Medical technology helps in increasing the cost-effectiveness of medical care, to better integrate hospital and primary care and to improve patient quality of life and provide equal access to innovative medical technology.

“Eucomed is pleased to see the long-awaited draft proposal and we look forward to continuing our good working relationship with the European Commission, especially in the key areas of patient safety and access. When implemented in a collaborative manner e-health is a particularly good example of medical technology contributing to increase the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of healthcare systems in Europe today” says John Wilkinson, Chief Executive of Eucomed.

The association also believes that European cooperation in the field of HTA can add value by facilitating the efficient use of HTA across Europe and creating a sustainable system for knowledge sharing and the provision of tools to assist HTA to ensure that HTAs systematically cover a wide range of perspectives in their scope, development and dissemination in Europe. Eucomed’s position on HTA can be viewed in the newly releases position paper.

One of Eucomed´s main priorities is to help policy makers throughout Europe find better solutions to treat patients. The association believe this can be achieved through increased collaboration on issues such as funding, reimbursement and patient access.

Subject-related background information

About Eucomed´s HTA Position Paper

The new position paper highlights seven core principles to ensure that the application of HTA encourages the efficient allocation of healthcare resources whilst also acknowledging the value of medical technology innovation in Europe:

1. Purpose: HTA should be used to support patient access to innovative technologies by promoting the use of technologies that are clinically and cost effective but should not be an additional barrier to market access.
2. Processes: HTA processes should be transparent and encourage the involvement of relevant stakeholders.
3. Perspective: HTA should adopt a broad perspective, capturing the impact of new technologies on patients, carers, the health service and society as a whole.
4. Timing: Technology manufacturers should be consulted to determine the optimal time to undertake HTA, taking into account the need to inform decisions on adoption with the availability of evidence.
5. Evidence standards and patient access: the level of evidence should provide decision-makers with sufficient confidence of relevance and reliability of finding, using experimental methods and/or well-designed observational studies.
6. Implementation of HTA decisions: Eucomed recommend that HTA bodies, where relevant to remit, should put in place steps to support the implementation of HTA recommendations to ensure the funding follows positive decisions, not forgetting that HTA on has implications on the environment needed to foster innovation of medical devices.
7. European and international HTA harmonization: Eucomed considers that whilst there are potential efficiencies to be gained in reducing the duplication of HTA activities across countries, the potential for harmonisation remains limited, since decision outcomes and application of a HTA should remain at a national/regional level.

Interesting links

• EC cross-border directive
• Eucomed HTA Position Paper
• Eucomed Focus on eHealth
• Cross-border healthcare in the EU Survey 
• Competitiveness & Innovativeness Survey

About Eucomed

Eucomed is the Voice of the medical technology industry in Europe. Eucomed represents directly and indirectly 4500 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technology used in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of disease and disability. Small and medium sized companies make up more than 80% of this sector. The European medical technology industry invests some EUR 3.8 billion in research and development and employs near to 435,000 highly skilled workers. The mission of Eucomed is to improve patient and clinician access to modern, innovative and reliable medical technology.

More information

Mark Grossien
Communications Director

mark.grossien(at)eucomed(dot)be

+32 (0)2.775.92.24