Key milestones for all region
The following key milestones would enable regions to effectively improve the contribution of health innovation landscapes to regional development:
- Adopt master/integrated planning within each region – this would make it difficult to isolate individual policy makers. Everyone has a contribution to make
- Identify the capacity and resources in a region to better understand how the delivery of innovation might be best coordinatedAudit the innovations and innovators in a region (what do we already do well? Potential to create regional clusters)
- Maximise the adoption of innovation developed regionally – identify and facilitate routes to markets for your innovations
- Advocate Structural Fund reform – there is a lack of accountability once a bid is won on outcomes but not enough flexibility to adjust outcomes where appropriate.
Beyond these milestones, partner regions identified the following important policy opportunities to ensure that regional health innovation landscapes are better orientated to delivering the Lisbon Agenda:
- Shift health policy towards prevention of chronic conditions and promoting well being (this should be done by policy makers across relevant sectors)
- Develop cross-government and cross-ministry commitments to intersectoral planning, funding and implementation at regional levels (national governments need to address this)
- Approaches to adoption of health innovations within regions should be linked to and support merging best practice care models e.g. enabling integrated care pathways (Health and Finance Ministries at regional and national level)
- Identify incentives to encourage partnership working between cross sectoral agencies e.g. through the development and use of integrated performance management frameworks and processes (Finance and Health Ministries, regional health systems)
- Enable the better development of integrated information systems to improve intersectoral decision-making about how to supply and improve better managed care pathways (local, regional and national information experts and agencies).