HEALTH EXPERTS from across Europe have called for policy reform, earlier intervention and better use of data to improve health outcomes across the region.
Leading healthcare professionals, policy makers and scientists gathered at the Future of Health Europe summit in London today to discuss how Europe can build health systems fit for ageing populations, rising chronic disease and the rapidly evolving scientific landscape.
To open the morning plenary session, Oliver Varhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare for the European Commission, set out three priorities for building health systems that Europe can rely on.
Firstly, he highlighted innovation and competency, including creating a more supportive environment for clinical trials in the EU with improved policy and regulation, streamlining access for patients to the best medications and treatments.
He also stressed the importance of prevention, and how countries must do more to address the risk of chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease, which remains the biggest cause of death in Europe.
Finally, Varhelyi called for the more effective use of already available health data to better predict, prevent and treat diseases amongst an ageing and growing population.
In a later session on prevention, Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London and founder of Zoe nutrition app, doubled down on the role of health data as “an incredibly powerful tool”.
He argued that the “worries of confidentiality” often cited by patients and professionals alike, are “far eclipsed by the benefit of what sharing this data can achieve”.
Spector stipulated that as well as providing information that may aid prevention and early intervention, more comprehensive and better understood health data also has the potential to help to motivate patients to monitor and take care of their own health.
Anja Schreijer, Medical Director at the Pandemic Disaster and Preparedness Centre, an advisory committee to the European Commission, agreed that combining data on wider scales and scopes is key to helping prevent future health emergencies and pandemics.
She highlighted that as well as using a range of metrics including blood biomarkers, wastewater data and animal data, collecting and analysing data on human behaviour is key to understanding how and why people make the decisions they do about their health, such as on vaccination and nutrition, and how it may be possible to influence these for the better.
Chronic disease and an ageing population were consistently flagged as issues in need of more pressing attention, through both community level work and government strategy.
In one session addressing the financial burden of living longer on both patients and economies, Brendan Walsh of the Economic and Social Research Institute called for the integration of health and long-term social care to support older generations, emphasising that intervention needs to happen early, “before they become old” in order to prevent issues arising later in life.
Patrick Kamphuis, Vice President Clinical Evidence and Biometrics, Danone, amongst others, said more needs to be done to tackle ‘modifiable’ risk factors for chronic health issues such as malnutrition in elderly hospital patients, which should “not simply be accepted as a part of ageing”.
For Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of the UK Biobank, whose focus was cardiovascular disease, mentioned that despite the causes of this being known for years, “we still have people smoking” and engaging in risky behaviours.
The key to Europe talking issues like this, is better education and information distribution to populations, as well as the implementation of stronger regulation by governing bodies.
Frank Vanderbroucke, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs in Belgium, spoke out in a similar vein against the rising popularity and availability of vapes and e-cigarettes, especially to younger people who may not fully understand their potential consequences.
Following Belgium becoming the first EU country to ban disposable vapes, he advocated for a complete ban on exciting colours and flavours that serve to entice the “new generations becoming addicted to nicotine”.
He also raised the issue of mental health and its effect on long-term health outcomes, stressing the need for early access to care and intervention to “avoid escalation”.
Across the discussions, a shared priority emerged: turning scientific knowledge into earlier intervention and coordinated policy to help people across Europe live longer, healthier lives at a sustainable cost.
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