Second General Assembly of the THCS Project in Edinburgh
This European initiative seeks to transform health systems towards sustainability, efficiency and inclusion in order to provide better care for people.
On 30 October 2024, Edinburgh (Scotland) hosted the Second General Assembly of the Transforming Health and Care Systems (THCS) project, a European initiative, under the Horizon Europe programme, which seeks to support a new model of care for more sustainable, efficient, resilient and inclusive health systems in Europe.
This event brought together representatives of more than 60 organisations from 23 EU Member States, partner countries and non-EU regions, such as Switzerland, the UK and the US, to address common challenges in health and social care, such as relieving pressure on health facilities, improving the coordination of organisations providing care to people and redefining the role of hospitals in the society of the future.
Transforming European health systems
The main objectives of the Assembly, organised by the NHS Confederation and the Scottish Government, were to assess the progress of the project and to approve the Annual Plan 2025, which addresses, among other aspects, the distribution of efforts among the partners, the tasks to be carried out and the budget of each partner.
One of the key points of the meeting was the evaluation of the progress of the projects funded by the Joint Transnational Call 2024 (JTC), which has a budget of more than 34 million euros and involves more than 30 funding agencies.
This call is designed to support the development of projects for the implementation of personalised prevention strategies in health and care based on digital technologies and existing data to improve the quality and efficiency of health services and reduce the burden of care and costs. The projects funded in this call are ultimately aimed at deploying new models of person-centred health to improve prevention and quality of life for European citizens.
The contribution of Biosistemak in THCS
Biosistemak is a partner of the THCS project and represents the Basque Country in this partnership. Its participation is mainly focused on the activities of pillars 1, integration of science and innovation in health policies and practices, and 3, transfer of innovative solutions and strengthening of health and care ecosystems.
Biosistemak researchers, Dolores Verdoy, Project Coordinator, and Maite Zabala, Researcher and Project Manager, have actively participated in the discussion of the advances in these pillars, as well as in the creation of aKnowledge Hub to foster the exchange of good practices and support the transformation of health and care systems in Europe.
Seminar on Digital Health and Financing Models
In parallel to the General Assembly, a seminar was held on the Knowledge Hub being developed, a space to foster the exchange of information and best practices in the field of digital health. Moderated by experts from the WHO, the OECD and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the seminar focused on three themes:
- Financing models and financial frameworks: Strategies for the implementation and scalability of digital technologies, including public-private partnership models.
- Digital health impact: Considerations on how to ensure equitable, reliable and sustainable digital transformation in health systems.
- Co-design of a new framework for measuring digital health outcomes: In collaboration with WHO Europe and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a new framework for assessing the impact of digital solutions on health and care was presented.
Next steps and future collaboration
The next THCS project meeting will be held in Brussels at the end of November, where project progress will be discussed and new strategies will be planned to further drive health systems transformation. This meeting will also address the Strengthening Ecosystems (WP9), which is part of Pillar 3, dedicated to strengthening ecosystems and innovation transfer.
Biosistemak will continue to work on advancing and generating knowledge on health systems transformation, especially on integrating science and innovation into health policies, and on strengthening ecosystems to ensure that the solutions developed are transferable to different contexts.
For more details on the THCS project, click here.
