Public Procurement Organizations (PPO) are rethinking existing practices as currently, quality of care is compromised and they do not lead to economic most advantageous purchasing. PPO involved in different PPI/PCP are teaming up around a novel approach of Value Based Procurement (VBP) joined by national/regional procurement organizations and service providers with a common vision, a value based procurement of innovative solutions to enable the needed transformation of health and social care delivery. The EURIPHI consortium involves 14 PPO, 10 with a regional or national remit and service providers from 6 countries who together, procure for more than 200 care service providers. The European Health Public Procurement Alliance members are also contributing to the project. This provides a strong basis to build out a Value Based PPI Community of Practice (CoP) to successfully achieve one of the key objectives of the CSA. The EURIPHI common vision is to build out around a MEAT VBP framework which will be made accessible with adaptions necessary to support the cross-border PPI leading to “MEAT Value Based PPI”. Cross-border PPI-Legal guidance will be developed by legal expert partners. Innovative solutions will be identified in the fields of rapid diagnostic (RD) tools in infectious disease and in the most promising integrated care services (IC). The identification of specific demands and prioritization will be done by expert partners and through the establishment of the Health Regional Network including stakeholders. Following an open market consultation, case testing will be performed for 1-2 RD and 3-4 IC innovative solutions and serve as an input for the PPI or PCP writing of SC1-BHC-20-2020. Dissemination and exploitation will be done by partners with a European or International remit and by an involvement of all partners in a blog series and EURIPHI Insights, with the support of a permanent secretariat.

RELIEF aims to link European health procurers in order to create the innovative and sustainable solutions that will improve chronic pain control/relieve through ITC self-management techniques. Chronic pain diseases is costing to healthcare systems annually over €300bn in Europe; 1.5%-3% of GDP (gross domestic product). Chronic pain entails a significant direct cost to healthcare systems. Consultations with healthcare professionals confirm that Chronic pain associated costs are the largest share in healthcare system costs. Inappropriate and ineffective management and treatment generates repetitive visits to primary care physicians, and referrals to specialists. This has been identified as important drivers of avoidable healthcare costs. However, while direct costs are high, it has been estimated that nine-tenths of the burden of pain may fall on the broader society. Even small increases in the effectiveness of pain management reap large economic rewards. More than half of patients with acute or chronic pain are not well treated even though the existing therapeutic options have confirmed effective results. There is a clear heterogeneity in the treatments and also in the results. eHealth solutions must achieve greater comparability between systems, patients and protocols, so as to reach more effective and efficient procedures. At present, there is a wide range of high-tech devices aimed at treating pain in its many facets and complexity. But it is still necessary to cover the gap between Research and Commercialization of new products and devices, as outlined during the Pain Technology Transfer Forum, held in Madrid in July 2014. RELIEF will foster and accelerate the access to market for innovative solutions, while respecting the public procurement directives. The project will contribute to boost innovative tools that empower the patient to self-manage current and future pains.

European public entities are responsible of the provision of critical services like healthcare, education, justice, etc. In order to improve the delivery of their services to citizens over time they need to incorporate innovation. This innovation is often developed and produced by the private sector, for example in the form of technology. A standard model of incorporating innovation is through technology-push: private suppliers develop their innovative solutions, with limited contact and exchange with the public entities, and then try to commercialize them. This limited contact often leads to solutions that are not completely tailored or addressing a profitable need, as there is no real engagement in collaborative relations with the public administration. This sub-optimal interaction and knowledge of the customer needs and culture, leave start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with un-marketable products, discouraging them to fully engage with an important market (Public Procurement in Europe is estimated at €2 trillion, close to 20% of EU GDP ).

Health InnoFacilitator aims to create a community leveraging capabilities and promoting innovation procurement within healthcare. Provide support, tailor-made training and coaching services for buyers and suppliers, develop and foster a community supported by online collaborative tools. Increase the awareness, skills and knowledge about innovation procurement among the buyers and the solution providers/ actors of innovation, build capabilities and therefore fostering the innovation procurement capabilities within the community, providing trainings, mentoring and coaching and supporting the community, which will in return, improve SMEs and startups access to innovation procurement, leverage capability among the buyers to develop innovation procurement, foster public and private partnership to encourage the co-design of innovation procurement (matching the buyers’ needs and helping the buyers to identify existing innovative solutions and to identify their needs for research and development).