News & Updates

22 May 2021

On Thursday, 20 May 2021 the TO-REACH project held its Final Conference, ‘Implementing and transferring innovations across health systems’. The conference brought together high-level speakers from the WHO, the European Commission and Ministries of Health, as well as project partners, academia, NGOs and the public at large to discuss the work done by the project over the past five years and the future of health systems and service research.

With over 230 attendees and an impressive speaker line-up, the Final Conference was the perfect chance to reflect on the challenges health systems are facing, the achievements of TO-REACH including its Strategic Research Agenda and Policy Briefs, but also to look forward at the Partnership on Transforming Health and Care Systems that the project helped building.

20 May 2021

The TO-REACH project addressed what the key priority areas are where European health systems can learn from each other and how we can improve their ability to do so.
One core activity of the project was the publication of two policy briefs addressed to policy-makers and health system managers. The briefs were designed to provide policy makers with evidence on a policy question or priority to support evidence-informed policy-making.

1 May 2021

The TO-REACH project Consortium is pleased to invite you to its Final Conference, ‘Implementing and transferring innovations across health systems‘. The conference will be taking place digitally on Thursday, 20 May 2021 from 10.00 CEST.

European health systems have been under incredible pressure, and the COVID-19 pandemic was just the latest symptom of a more profound ailment. To address this situation, a new common vision is needed, one based on mutual learning and collaboration. Such vision is the key to transforming health and care systems and making them more resilient, effective and sustainable. Countries and regions in Europe should learn from each other and collaborate to enable the effective transfer and implementation of health policy and services innovations.

19 January 2021

On Thursday, 19 November 2020, the TO-REACH project was at EHMA 2020, the Annual Conference of the European Health Management Association (EHMA). 

The Conference took place digitally on 17-19 November 2020, through the lens of Rotterdam, on the theme ‘Health Management: realigning systems, contexts and players’. EHMA 2020 welcomed over 350 participants representing academia, research, healthcare professionals, health and hospital managers, and policy makers.

Lost in translation? Health systems and innovation transfer

Dr. Nick Fahy (University of Oxford and European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, UK), Dr. Johan Hansen (Nivel, The Netherlands), Prof. Ellen Nolte (School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK) and Ms. Sabrina Montante (Italian National Health Service and TO-REACH project coordinator, Italy) led the session ‘Lost in translation? Health systems and innovation transfer‘.

2 September 2020

On 1 September, TO-REACH was featured in the EHMA Webinar Series ‘COVID-19: from Viral to Containment’. The webinar, ‘Better health systems and policies revealed from research and innovation‘ focused on the challenges health systems are facing that have been further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar also focused on the support that a framework facilitating policy and innovation transfer could provide.

Ms. Sabrina Montante, Senior Advisor at Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS – Italian National Institute of Health) and Dr. Marius Ungureanu, Director of Education at Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania, presented the work conducted by the TO-REACH project.

31 August 2020

The TO-REACH project will be featured in the EHMA Webinar Series ‘COVID-19: from Viral to Containment’ on Tuesday, 1 September 2020 with a dedicated webinar on ‘Better health systems and policies revealed from research and innovation‘. The webinar will outline the TO-REACH framework and how it can be pivotal in better understanding and addressing the pandemic.

1 April 2020

Enhanced solidarity and exchange of knowledge on service and policy innovation: crucial instruments to strengthen our health and care systems in a rapidly evolving environment

The COVID-19 pandemic is having an enormous impact on our health systems, and most of them are responding with speed and innovation. This crisis is putting an unprecedented level of pressure on all components of our systems, with new and evolving thinking on how to efficiently and effectively address the various challenges it creates for decision-makers, planners, those working at the frontline of service delivery and the wider population. Health systems are introducing radical changes in terms of emergency protocols, public health measures integrated with the reorganisation of hospital care, responding to the pressures placed on critical care in particular, innovative digital solutions, shortages of medical and protective equipment and infrastructure, and redeploying health care workers, while ensuring that the most vulnerable in the population and those providing essential services are being cared for.  The pandemic is strongly impacting on health research, too, reprioritising and revising ongoing work to support health system efforts to tackle the crisis, extraordinary levels of data exchange, collaboration between sectors, analysis and a shared need for new evidence. Connection between action and research has never been so necessary even in domains as health policy and health services research.

This emergency clearly demonstrates once again the complexity and interconnectedness of our health and social care systems, and the complexity of introducing and managing change in a rapidly evolving environment. Novel diagnostic, containment and mitigation policies are essential to reduce the demand for critical services and ensure timely treatment. But as affordability is a clear prerequisite to access diagnostics and treatment, service and policy innovation is as crucial to effectively address health system capacity issues and overcome structural barriers. The TO-REACH Strategic Research Agenda has identified a number of key areas that are at the forefront of the pandemic crisis that our health systems are currently facing and that they might need to confront again in the future. These includes sustainable health service redesign and workforce planning, information technology and data exchange for health improvement, governance and health financing, collaboration, cross-country information exchange and research. These are at the very heart of the international debate on our health systems and services.

Health systems are learning from each other in real time with COVID-19, although with great uncertainty about what experiences elsewhere can teach us about our own systems and what we should do. This illustrates anew the need for enhanced solidarity and exchange of knowledge on our health and care systems and on how we should support the effective transfer and implementation of innovative services and policies within a sustainable framework for cooperation in Europe. Improved and shared understanding of the different contexts and their impacts on system performance and structures is vital.

Within this context the TO-REACH consortium, whilst supporting EU’s coordination efforts in response to the crisis, upholds the need for even stronger cooperation and exchange of knowledge and evidence, highlighting their crucial importance in improving and strengthening our health and care systems and services; today in the face of this unprecedented crisis and in the aftermath, when we will need to ensure sustainability and quality of care for all.

The TO-REACH Consortium

27 November 2019

The TO-REACH Consortium is organising the conference ‘Innovations in Health and Social Care – Enhancing Health and Wellbeing in Europe’ together with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and Academy of Finland, 

The conference, taking place on Tuesday, 3 December 2019, is organised under under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the European Union. The event will bring together representatives from different policy areas, as well as stakeholders from public and private sector, and academia.

9 September 2019

On Friday, 6 September 2019, the TO-REACH Consortium responded to the European Commission public consultation ‘Horizon Europe Co-design 2021-2024’, focused on co-designing and shaping the future EU research and innovation investment framework. The consultation collected inputs from across Europe and beyond, informing the Commission’s work towards the definition of a ‘Strategic Plan’ for Horizon Europe, which will guide the work programmes and calls for proposals for Horizon Europe’s first four years (2021-2024). The consultation and its results will be further discussed during the European Research and Innovation Days in Brussels from 24 to 26 September 2019.

25 July 2019

The TO-REACH Consortium invites you to SAVE THE DATE for its upcoming event ‘Innovations in Health and Social Care – Enhancing Health and Wellbeing in Europe’. The conference will be organised in collaboration with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Academy of Finland and under the auspices of the Finnish Presidency of the European Union.