ESR delighted to join relaunched eHealth Stakeholder Group

_{August 2020}

The European Society of Radiology (ESR) welcomes the establishment of the revamped eHealth Stakeholder Group and is delighted to provide the group with a radiology perspective on digital health and Artificial Intelligence throughout its 2020-2022 mandate.

The eHealth Stakeholder Group was first established by the European Commission in 2012 and is composed of European organisations active in the field of digital health, representing industry, the medical profession, patients and NGOs. The group contributes to the development and implementation of digital health policies by providing expertise on European Commission launched actions and fostering exchanges between members on topics of common interest.

Building on the lessons learnt from the previous mandates, the ESR argues that a flexible modus operandi and adequately defined priorities, reflecting members’ input and recommendations, would create a solid basis for collaboration and dialogue. The ESR believes that the group should be timely consulted on relevant policy initiatives, ultimately benefiting implementation in clinical practice. With the membership’s vested expertise, the eHealth Stakeholder Group will play its role in supporting the development and implementation of robust and trustworthy digital solutions in healthcare. 

The ESR recognises the opportunities created by digital health solutions and Artificial Intelligence to bolster clinical practice, accelerating the time to diagnosis and treatment for patients, and research in medicine.

In light of the ongoing digital transformation and the shortcomings laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, we call on the eHealth Stakeholder Group to consider the following topics for its work programme: 

• Telemedicine: investigating and formulating recommendations on how to embed it in clinical practice
• Health data: addressing technical standards, ethical and privacy issues, governance, and infrastructure to support the development of a ‘European Health Data Space’ and progress on the ‘European Health Record Exchange Format’
• Artificial Intelligence: providing input on existing ‘barriers’ that impede the safe uptake of AI in healthcare with a particular emphasis on testing and validation.

The ESR is eager to support the eHealth Stakeholder Group in its mission to support EU initiatives in the field of digital health and to partner with the European Commission and the members in the realisation of the group's mandate.

_myESR