Recognising the value of digital health apps – An assessment of five European healthcare systems
Digital health apps can improve access to and quality of care in Europe’s healthcare systems. As such, broad deployment of digital health apps is key to achieving innovation and sustainability in European healthcare. However, the current lack of clear and formally established funding and reimbursement mechanisms hinders their use in Europe, at the expense of patients, healthcare professionals and healthcare systems.
This MedTech Europe paper provides an overview of funding and reimbursement initiatives for digital health apps that are currently in place in Belgium, England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. It finds that funding and reimbursement for digital health apps are not uniform across Europe: it identifies common elements and overarching patterns, as well as country- or region-specific differences. A set of recommendations are proposed that may guide the further development of these initiatives within and beyond the countries and regions considered at regional, national and/or European levels:
- Ensure transparency
- Link with funding
- Consider the value
- Share learnings
- Support evidence generation
- Invest in infrastructure and training
