Photo credit: Health First Europe
A two-day meeting was organised within the framework of the EU project ‘To-Reach’ (funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union) to discuss and plan a future Health ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ and Systems Research agenda for Europe.
The event was held at the European District in Brussels (Belgium) on 29 and 30 January 2018. The workshop was addressed by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità ) and delegates from different partner countries – in Europe and abroad – participated and contributed to the event.
Malta was represented by the Department of Health ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ Management at the University of Malta (Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Senior Lecturer, and Dr Gianpaolo Tomaselli, Research Support Officer) and the Directorate for Health ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ and Research within the Ministry for Health (Dr Neville Calleja, Director).
Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat actively participated in a round-table discussion meeting held at the European Parliament focusing on the potential and challenges of cross-national learning in Health Systems and ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ Research and exploring the key contextual elements for transferring and introducing innovation within different healthcare contexts (namely from a country to another country). During her intervention, Dr Azzopardi Muscat also talked about vaccination and stated that only 3% of health expenditure is invested in prevention within the European Union. This workshop was organised by the Interest Group on Innovation in Health and Social Care, supported by Health First Europe, led by John Bowis and co-chaired by Members of the European Parliament. Further details on this event held at the European Parliament are available through .
A Scientific Advisory Council meeting discussed the concept of transferability on health systems research. A Policy Advisory Council meeting focused on identifying potential research areas for cross-national learning at the EU level. The partners meeting focused on providing updates from Work Package’s Leaders on the most recent advancements and related future steps of To-reach project.
Malta has a key role in supporting the coordination of activities related to the To-reach consortium and the country already held a successful National Consultation meeting in Valletta on 14 December 2017, which attracted over 45 participants from different sectors.
The To-reach project is financed by the EU Horizon 2020 programme. The project multidisciplinary consortium includes 28 partners from 20 countries including EU Member States, Norway, Canada, Israel and the US, and it covers research founders, policymakers and the research community. Its main goal is to prepare a joint European research programme aimed at producing research evidence supporting health care services and systems to become more resilient, effective, equitable, accessible, sustainable and comprehensive. Thus, To-reach is focused on setting out clearly what needs to be done in terms of the future Health ¸£ÀûÔÚÏßÃâ·Ñ and Systems Research agenda, with the objectives of: i) identifying common challenges and organizational needs across Europe; ii) proposing possible solutions to improve health system performance; and iii) identifying the most effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality, sustainable, and equitable care to citizens.
Details of the To-reach initiative are available at the and page of the project.
