Information Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP)

11 July 2009
by inadim -- last modified 14 July 2009

The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses.

Key documents in ICT-related Research

 

FP7 Work Programme 2009-2010

4.5 Challenge 5: Towards sustainable and personalised healthcare

The health domain and its three main industries, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and eHealth, are dominant economic sectors with respect to employment creation and growth. Sustainable delivery of quality healthcare at affordable cost is a major challenge for European healthcare systems for a variety of reasons such as: (a) demographic change and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases; (b) inefficiencies, inadequate safety standards and quality control; (c) demanding citizens who require best-quality care and cover for the use of latest diagnostics and treatments; (d) current focus on treatment rather than on prevention and (e) reducing workforce, availability and accessibility of skilled nurses and medical specialists. This calls for changes in the way healthcare is delivered and the way medical knowledge is managed and transferred to clinical practice. ICT tools and services are key to implement these changes in such an information-intensive domain.

Advances in basic ICT components and the convergence of ICT-nano-bio technologies allow for the development of life saving applications with great business opportunities. ICT may offer useful capability to improve illness prevention and safety of care and to facilitate active participation of patients, thus opening new opportunities in personalised health and disease management. Recent capabilities of modelling, simulation and biomedical imaging, combined with the latest knowledge about diseases, give rise to a new generation of predictive medicine. In this challenge, support will go to highly interdisciplinary research aiming at:

- Improved productivity of healthcare systems by facilitating better integrated care and management of chronic diseases at the point of need and quicker transfer of knowledge to clinical practice.

- Continuous and personalised care solutions, addressing the participation of patients in care and prevention processes, and responding to the needs of elderly people.

- Savings in lives and resources by focusing on prevention and prediction of diseases and on improved patient safety by optimising medical interventions and preventing errors.

- New ICT-based environments for biomedical research and predictive medicine that push the boundaries of technologies like grid computing, modelling and simulation. - Reinforcing the leadership of Europe's eHealth and medical imaging/devices industries and attracting back to Europe research activities of the pharmaceutical industry.

All activities will take into consideration relevant regulations as well as relevant results and work from successful or ongoing projects from EU Framework Programmes or other initiatives such as Joint Technology Initiatives. The centre of gravity of all activities will be in ICT, however, if any efforts are required in other directions such as data collection or basic clinical, medical, biological or nanotechnology-related research, these will represent less than 25% of the total effort. Successful outcomes will contribute directly to the priorities of the i2010 initiative and will be coordinated with the activities related to chronic disease management under the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).

The full FP7 Work Programme 2009-2010 is available here.

 

Source: European Commission