Cooperation without borders: Luxembourg and Germany create single European market for digital health applications
Recently, Franz Fayot, Luxembourg's Minister of Economy, visited the “go-cluster” member Medical Valley EMN e. V. in Forchheim and Erlangen and signed a cooperation agreement. The aim of the agreement is to pave the way for a uniform European market for digital healthcare and to advance the development of digital healthcare applications and value-added services. This will provide the network partners of Medical Valley EMN with access to Luxembourg and other European markets.
The Luxembourg Minister of Economic Affairs Franz Fayot (from right) during his visit to Medical Valley EMN e. V. together with Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schüttler, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Medical Valley EMN e. V., Mario Grotz, Director General, DG Innovation, Research and New Technologies (DG INTER) and Carole Brückler, Head of Digital Health Technologies (DG INTER) (from right to left).
© hl-studios GmbH, Walther Appelt
Germany is considered a pioneer regarding the reimbursement of digital health applications (DiGA). The basis for this is the Digital Health Care Act, which was launched in December 2019, and allows doctors to prescribe DiGAs – like medicines – as health insurance benefits. At the same time, the law creates the possibility of having DiGA certified, which then makes the applications reimbursable. Germany is thus the first European country to launch a comprehensive legal framework for DiGA - from certification to reimbursement.
Development of health services following the German model
Luxembourg has recognised Germany’s pioneering role in this field and would like to follow its example. Against this background, Franz Fayot recently visited the “go-cluster” member Medical Valley European Metropolitan Region Nuremberg (EMN) and sealed the German-Luxembourg cooperation agreement together with representatives of Medical Valley EMN and the Digital Medical Applications Centre (dmac).
The aim of the agreement is to build a single European market for digital healthcare and to advance the development of digital healthcare applications and value-added services. To achieve this goal, the establishment of a cross-cluster cooperation and the development of a European Hub for Digital Health Applications is planned.
[EMBEDDED] Anna Werner, Managing Director of Medical Valley EMN
“The cooperation means a further, very important step for us to be able to bring digital solutions to the market also across national borders. Regarding DiGA reimbursement, we have very specific knowledge and best practices in our network to implement the requirements for the applications as well as studies for evaluation. Precisely these experiences can be very valuable for other countries.”
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The intention is to build a bridge between the two digital health ecosystems and to support the network partners in gaining access to the health market in Luxembourg as well as other European markets.
The HE:AL Health Technologies Campus, which will start operations in Esch/Alzette, Luxembourg, in 2024, is also expected to benefit from the knowledge acquired from the cooperation.
[EMBEDDED] Marco Wendel, Managing Director of Medical Valley EMN/dmac
“The partnership with the European Ministry of Economy is a key element towards a single European market for digital healthcare. In the end, it should help to accelerate the time-to-market for health apps and digital therapeutics.”
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Network partners develop strategy for a European Hub for DiGA
A central player in the transnational cooperation is the Medical Valley EMN network partner dmac – it is considered a central repository of knowledge with extensive experience in the field of DiGA in Germany. dmac is thereby developing a suitable strategy for the planned joint European Digital Health Application Hub. Other network partners, such as ProCarement GmbH and Portabiles Healthcare Technologies GmbH, can provide insights from a manufacturer's perspective and determine the exact needs in terms of support for such companies. The requirements from practice as well as the specific process knowledge form the optimal basis for the conceptual design of the European Hub for Digital Health Application.
[EMBEDDED] Dr. Sebastian Eckl, Managing Director of ProCarement
“With Medical Valley, we have the right partner by our side to develop innovations and products for new markets. And the most important thing: through the cooperation within the cluster, we have very specialised knowledge. This is how to become an innovator for new applications once again. We are very pleased to be part of this transnational cooperation.”
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Clusters as door openers for internationalisation
The example of this ClusterSUCCESS shows what an important role clusters like Medical Valley EMN can have for companies in opening up new markets. In this case, they provide a fertile environment for innovators in the field of digital health and grant their network partners access to the right institutions and resources – the basis for access to new international markets and long-term, economic success.
Medical Valley EMN
Medical Valley EMN (European Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg) is a leading international innovation ecosystem in the field of healthcare management. It consists of more than 240 members from business (companies and investors), science, health care and politics and works closely with globally renowned health research institutions to jointly find solutions for the challenges of health care today and tomorrow. In combination with the international market and competitive position of individual players, this provides optimal conditions enabling the rapid development of products, processes and services. In this way, numerous product innovations from the research laboratories of Medical Valley have reached the market in recent years.
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