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European Podiatry

EP

-Mission: At EP our mission is the promotion at the European level of podiatry as an academic discipline and the figure of the podiatrist as a qualified professional by means of education, promotion and strategic alliances with organisations and institutions that work to support people with foot and ankle problems.-The objective of EP is to create a network of professionals, institutions, organisations and academics in order to improve cooperation between the podiatry sector and European public institutions.-Vision: EP is a society of podiatry professionals and academics, established in 2020.

Lobbying Activity

Response to A European Health Data Space

17 May 2022

European Podiatry would like to warmly welcome you to the initiative proposed by the European Commission on Public Consultation on the European Health Data Space. Thanks to this proposal, the capacity of digital health will be able to be increased to reduce inequalities and be able to offer better medical attention to European citizens. The digital transformation of healthcare and attention to the European Data Strategy must be encouraged, in addition to having other more specific approaches to make more effective use of Artificial Intelligence in the public health field. As mentioned above, within the legislative framework, it seeks to address the existing problems in the member states. Among the main problems, there are cases where digital health is not yet a reality in some members states. Although, there are countries within our region that can be seen as leading lights, such as Estonia, Denmark and Finland, or others like Spain and Italy who have invested continually to advance in this field. The COVID-19 crisis and the need to provide care through telematics has meant that in many cases, the system has become obsolete as it is incapable of resolving current issues or may even pose a risk to patients’ health. Even in a simple registry of digital prescriptions, it has proved complex to create a uniform system that can be competent for current needs. Furthermore, this becomes even more difficult when many member states “wish to control and access their own health data”, within their own systems, without considering that this can result in several long-term obstacles and create differences between the treatment that European citizens may receive in a different member state. In general, European Podiatry agrees with the main objectives of the legislation proposed by EHDS and we believe that the reference scenario is currently somewhat complex. For many years, attempts have been made to develop user-focused digital solutions and these have been integrated into many European healthcare systems, even across borders. These have improved the lives of healthcare workers, patients, and the most vulnerable groups in our society. In addition, European Podiatry believes that the new EU4Health project will be advantageous for establishing clear links with the EHDS implementation to address the current digital divide. An example of this would be the recent debate about the combination of vaccination certificates with travel privileges for people who have already received 2 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. This makes it fundamental to protect basic human rights. For this reason, the integration of an objective related to the rights of patients to protect against inequalities would be a good strategy for the EU. The main objective is the offer better access to patient data in medical provision and research. This should be followed by strong legislation along with continuous updates of the protection of patient data privacy as technology advances. Therefore, it will be necessary to invest in cybersecurity in the future. Given that health data is an increasingly important resource in our society to be able to make the best decisions about public health, the best option is to have a wide array of digital health solutions available for our hospitals and health sector professionals. It is the time to create trust among our citizens and carry out more research to be able to have access to digital health services with all the guarantees that all Europeans can benefit regardless of the country they are in.
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Response to Evaluation of patient rights in cross-border healthcare

10 Feb 2021

La asistencia sanitaria transfronteriza es un derecho fundamental que debe de tener todo ciudadano de la UE. Ya que este debe de tener derecho de acceso a la asistencia sanitaria en cualquier Estado Miembro de la UE, además de que su país de origen le reembolse la asistencia sanitaria en el extranjero. Existen actualmente, muchos países que están poniendo obstáculos para poder reembolsar a los pacientes la asistencia sanitaria en el extranjero. Es por este motivo, por el cual en Europa se necesita seguir una serie de protocolos sobre la prestación de atención médica completa en el país que ha seleccionado el paciente, además, se deben de enfatizar que actualmente en muchos países europeos existe una lista de espera de más de dos años, esto hace que el acceso a la atención médica no esté disponible para muchos pacientes y por este motivo, muchos ciudadanos acabaron demandando en los Tribunales a sus países. La asistencia transfrinteriza debería de garantizar que cada paciente pueda elegir cualquier clínica europea para el diagnóstico y el tratamiento, además de que la Directiva de la Comisión Europea deberá de prohibir las restricciones del seguro médico nacional, ya que ahora existe una situación en la que algunos países han restringido los tratamiento de otros países de la UE o se necesita de una aprobación especial, lo que hace que el paciente pierda tiempo. Es por este motivo, por el cual la Comisión no debe de permitir este procedimiento. La asistencia sanitaria transfronteriza debe ser única sin discriminación alguna por parte de los países miembros de la UE. Carolina García Public Affairs Relations Manager European Poditry LLP www.europeanpodiatry.org cgarcia@europeanpodiatry.org
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