Biocat, partner in Horizon Europe FLASH project
<p>One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of flexible financing and organization in healthcare systems. In response to the crisis, more financial resources were made available and human resources were reassigned to healthcare. Nevertheless, healthcare systems are facing other challenges that require innovative solutions and efficient, flexible funding mechanisms.</p>
To address these challenges, the FLASH project (Flexible Approaches to Support Health through financing) kicked off on February 13 in Verona with an initial meeting of all the participants to present the work plan.
The FLASH project is funded 100% by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe program, coordinated by Università Degli Studi Di Verona (Italy). It aims to tackle this challenge and help improve healthcare systems throughout Europe. Through a comprehensive analysis of healthcare funding mechanisms in Europe and, by employing a wide range of methodological approaches, this project aims to provide evidence for the ability of existing funding mechanisms and contracts to address current challenges and to study new solutions for more effective, efficient and equitable healthcare systems. The project will last 4 years and has a budget of €5 million.
The specific aims of FLASH are:
- To establish funding models that address health needs efficiently and equitably.
- To identify the key determinants of healthcare systems’ resilience in order to improve their ability to deal with extreme events, as well as long-term structural changes.
- To provide guidance on how better integration of health services could make healthcare more effective and efficient.
- To help improve understanding of existing incentives and encourage development of new ones.
- To identify new technologies that can potentially have an impact on the financial and organizational aspects of healthcare systems before they reach the market.
Regarding this last point, Biocat is leading this work package and, over the next four years, will be working to develop new tools to help payers identify these technologies early, encouraging their adoption and, therefore, arrival to patients.
The first meeting of the FLASH project members
The consortium has 16 members:
Università degli Studi di Verona (IT, Coordinators), Consorzio Italbiotec (IT), Univerzita Karlova (CZ), Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (NL), Fundació Institut Universitari per a la Recerca a l’Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (Idiapjgol- ES), Kancelář Zdravotního Pojištění (CZ), Università degli Studi di Catania (IT), Universität Hamburg (DE), Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Uic - ES), Vilniaus Universitetas (LT), Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie (PL), Agenzia Nazionale per i Servizi Sanitari Regionali (IT), Mci Management Center Innsbruck Internationale Hochschule Gmbh (AT), Fédération Européenne des Hôpitaux et des Soins de Santé (Hope - BE), Biocat (CAT) and Azienda Zero (IT).