Recognising the value of digital health apps: An assessment of five European healthcare systems

Europe’s health systems are under pressure. Demographic changes, rising incidences of chronic disease, and a shortage of healthcare professionals undermine their ability to deliver care. Digital health technologies (DHTs) have the potential to make healthcare safer, better and more efficient. Yet levels of their deployment in Europe’s healthcare systems remain low.

An overarching barrier to the deployment of DHTs is the lack of appropriate mechanisms for funding and reimbursement. In a new set of papers that focus on digital health, we seek to understand and document these barriers in Europe’s healthcare systems and propose ways in which these barriers can be mitigated or removed. The first paper focuses on the Funding and Reimbursement Mechanisms for Digital Health Technologies in Europe”.

MedTech Europe, as the voice of Europe’s medical technologies industry, calls on national and regional policymakers and payers to recognise the value and incentivise the use of DHTs in Europe’s healthcare systems, by setting up clear frameworks for reimbursement and funding pathways that will enable their uptake and use in Europe’s healthcare systems.