Piloting personalised medicine in health and care systems

Specificchallenge:Personalised medicine[1] has the potential to respond to, amongst others, the increasing burden of chronic disease and the complexity of co-morbidities and in doing so contribute to the sustainability of health and care systems.

If this potential is to be realised at a larger scale it must first be demonstrated in terms of sustainable benefits, and as a new model of care organisation. Demonstration is however complicated by the diversity of European Union health systems.

Scope: Pilots of new models of care, based on the concept of personalised medicine should be conducted in existing health care environments and should take into account Europe's (national and regional) diversity in health system organisation.

Proposals should ensure coordination with national, regional or local authorities engaging in health sector reform, with the design of new models taking into account the views of other relevant stakeholders, including policy makers and citizens. Behavioural, ethical, legal, social implications as well as the gender dimension should be addressed.

The health, economic and social impact of the implementation of these pilots on individual patients, whole or stratified population groups, and their impact at the level of health care systems should be assessed. The organisational and resource requirements of the piloted models (data, personnel and financing) should be tracked, providing evidence on methods of implementation and benefits of reform while ensuring safety, equity and cost effectiveness.  Appropriate measures for knowledge transfer and capacity building should be put in place.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 12 and 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected impact: On the basis of quantitative and qualitative indicators, evidence for a validated model of organisation of care based on the concept of personalised medicine should be produced, to be used by policy makers and decision makers in making improvements to health and care systems.

Type of action: Research and innovation actions

[1] Personalised medicine refers to a medical model using molecular profiling for tailoring the right therapeutic strategy for the right person at the right time, and/or to determine the predisposition to disease and/or to deliver timely and targeted prevention