25 April 2024
In early 2023, MEDVIA organized a Roadmap to the Future, bringing together our members to understand the landscape and identify opportunities and challenges for our ecosystem. During this exercise, ATMP and Health Data were both selected by our members as key topics, where the Belgian ecosystem needs to unite to tackle complex challenges if we want to excel on the world stage.
Following the roadmap, we launched two Working Groups focused on ATMP and Health Data, to better understand the specific hurdles for each topic and determine how we could best help members pave a path forward for health innovation in Flanders. Now, a year on, we’re moving towards a more action-oriented approach by transitioning these two Working Groups into Strategic Initiatives.
Why Strategic Initiatives in ATMP and Health Data?
The aim for the MEDVIA Strategic Initiatives in ATMP and Health Data will be to future-proof the health innovation ecosystem of Flanders. We will help to do that by using these initiatives to:
- Provide a Helicopter View of the who’s who and what’s what around these strategic topics, to keep our members informed of what’s happening with ATMP and Health Data in the ecosystem.
- Create projects together with members to really push the envelope on these topics and create tangible outcomes. We will work to develop and coordinate collaborative projects for maximum strategic output (including case studies, product development, systems innovation, and the creation of policy papers, white papers, research papers, events, etc).
- Represent a Collective Voice for MEDVIA members by participating on their behalf and collaborating with relevant decision-making bodies (such as ATMP Flanders and RWD4BE) and advocacy groups (e.g. BeMedtech, Medtech Europe, Pharma.be).
Strategic Initiative Projects already launched
To date, we’ve helped create and submit two projects for our Strategic Initiatives, one on ATMP and one on Health Data.
ATMP Project: ATMP XB
We submitted the ATMP XB (Cross Border) p
roject in March 2024. This is an Interreg project focused on the enhancement of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) infrastructure, developing QA/QC-associated innovation projects on stability and sterility, and the establishment of an Excellence Centre for cross-border training and sharing of best practices within Flanders and the southern part of the Netherlands. This project included more than 10 different MEDVIA members and partners from within Belgium and the Netherlands.
Health Data Project: QualiEPD
We supported three of our member hospitals in submitting a health data project under the recent FOD innovation project call. This project involves the development of a data collection tool that could be integrated into existing electronic health record systems to allow for higher quality data collection, easier visualization of data, and better exchange and access of data for both the patient and primary/secondary healthcare providers. We’re focusing on the collection of locally advanced prostate cancer data as an initial test case.
Future events / projects
Health Data project webinar: In June we will hold a webinar to provide information on health data-related initiatives relevant to members in Flanders (Belgian, EU and broader international initiatives). To register, keep an eye on the MEDVIA newsletter or contact us to be put on the contact list for the webinar.
Funding opportunities: If you are interested in taking part in future projects in either ATMP or Health Data, please contact us for advice and support.
