There is concern across the European Union that health does not figure prominently enough in the economic development plans of Member States at both national and regional levels. Starting in 2005 as an Interreg IIIC network operation, HCN is an initiative that spun-off into a non-profit company that still seeks to help address this challenge. […]
July 2017
Demonstrating the added value of investment It is shared and common prejudice that the costs for health care are rocketing and approaching the limits of affordability. This is not supported by evidence on expenditure over a 10 year period of economic change, intense health sector reform or consumer preferences and demand. A challenge shared by […]
July 2017
The European Innovation Scoreboard 2016 emphasized a well-known fact in Europe: that although the EU is closing the gap with US and Japan, Europe continues to be less innovative than South Korea, the United States and Japan. Too often, new technologies that have been developed in the EU are commercialised elsewhere. Now the economic future […]
July 2017
This theme explores how the health sector (i) can connect with hard to reach groups (long-term unemployed, the homeless, refugees and immigrants) in order to provide sustainable job opportunities including for older people; (ii) can work with the social enterprise sector to create employment opportunities; and (iii) develop training partnerships with the education and enterprise sectors that create […]
July 2017
This theme looks at how procurement by health sector organisations can be used to support the development of local small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) within each partner region. Procurement means getting something. A basic challenge for the health sector is to consider this what are we trying to obtain? The obvious answer is that the […]
July 2017