Transforming ideas into actions: how EIT Health drives health innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe

Established in 2015 as a response to the substantial immediate and longterm challenges facing healthcare in Europe, EIT Health is now one of the largest healthcare initiatives worldwide. EIT Health focuses on needs-driven innovation: identifying unmet clinical and economic needs within healthcare systems and meeting those needs through innovation.

The strength of EIT Health lies in the expertise and resources of its unique network of partners, which comprises 140+ leading organisations across all key areas of healthcare, i.e. the pharmaceutical industry, medical technology, payers, public and private research institutions, and universities. EIT Health brings together world-class thought leaders from these organisations who contribute their visions and share their organisations’ assets to accelerate innovation and change, thus supporting groundbreaking ideas that will make a difference. 

One very successful initiative delivering real results for patients with rare cancers and healthcare providers is the Rare Cancer KIC project. Rare cancers are disconnected from mainstream diagnostics, treatments and business, thus leaving patients with inadequate support. However, addressing diagnosis and treatment of rare cancers appropriately has the potential to expand the cancer market by 20% (€5 billion per year). EIT Health supports the creation, development and commercialisation of new products and services that help rare cancer patients and alleviate the burden on stretched healthcare resources in the process. Led by the University of Oxford in association with GE Healthcare, Leiden University Medical Centre, and Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, the Rare Cancer KIC project focuses on innovation to address inequalities in healthcare provision and improve the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases, to directly benefit patients.  

This co-creative approach over the past few years is also reaping tangible benefits in other areas. One example is the JIGSAW-E (Joint Implementation of Guidelines for oSteoArthritis in Western Europe; www.eithealth.eu/jigsaw-e) project, led by Keele University, a member of the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, hosted at EIT Health partner University Hospital Birmingham. In collaboration with the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the project translated successful research findings into real world clinical practice, which improves the quality of osteoarthritis management in primary care. With EIT Health’s help, the JIGSAW-E partners are currently in the process of implementing a new model of patient self-management across a growing network of partners in the UK and in Europe. 

We need to bring about a paradigm shift to put citizens and patients at the front and centre of healthcare - moving from a focus on treating diseases to preventing them. Citizen and patient engagement is critical to achieving this change. This belief was reflected in EIT Health’s support last week for a very special NHS70 Parliamentary Award.

EIT Health is incredibly proud to sponsor the ‘Person-Centred Care Champion Award’. We’re lucky to have the NHS underpin the health ecosystem here in the UK. We work closely with the NHS, through our partnerships with Academic Health Science Networks and university hospitals, to translate innovations into real citizen benefit, and ensure it is shared throughout our European network.

Headquartered in Munich, the EIT Health network currently spans across six regional offices in the UK–Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain, France, Germany–Switzerland and Belgium–Netherlands, with seven further innovative regions being included in the EIT Health Innostars.

EIT Health is supported by the EIT, a body of the European Union

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