Joint Action on Dementia 2015-2018The Joint Action will focus on two phases on work: approximately 12 months on developing a consensus on the best evidence of effective action in 4 key areas (diagnosis and post-diagnostic support; crisis and care coordination; quality of care in residential care settings; and dementia-friendly communities); and approximately 24 months on testing the best evidence of effective action in localities to develop a greater understanding of how change can be taken forward in practice.In addition, there will be 3 additional components: evaluation of the joint action (outputs and quality: dissemination; and overall coordination of this project.The project will be achieved through collaborative effort, with the 4 main work plans having identified leads or co-leads and other countries contributing time to the work.


Topic: 1.4 Support cooperation and networking in the Union in relation to preventing and improving the response to chronic diseases including cancer, age-related diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, by sharing knowledge, good practices and developing joint activities on prevention, early detection and management (including health literacy and self management). Follow up work on cancer which has already been undertaken, including relevant actions suggested by the European Partnership Action against Cancer.


The overall ambition from EU Member States (MS) is to better include eHealth into health policy and better align eHealth investments to health needs. A central aspect is the transferability of health data across borders of MS and therefore the organizational, technical, semantic and legal interoperability. In order to ensure progress and to bridge the gaps between the governance, strategy and operational levels, a dedicated mechanism for eHealth at EU level has been established: The eHealth Network was formally established in 2011 through the Commission’s Implementing Decision 2011/890/EU based on Art. 14.3 Directive 2011/24/EU and represents the highest decision-making body at EU political level. At a European level there is a strong need to maintain this mechanism and to ensure further common political leadership and ongoing integration of eHealth into health policy in order to continue developing eHealth services responding to health systems‘ needs and health objectives. This is the framework for the Joint Action to support the eHealth Network which is led by the MS and co-financed by the European Commission through a Joint Action.

Hence, the main objective of the Joint Action is to act as the main preparatory body for the eHealth Network. By doing so, the Joint Action aims to develop political recommendations and instruments for cooperation in the four specific priority areas that are specified in the eHealth Network's multi-annual work plan 2015-2018 and that were adopted by the eHealth Network in May 2014:
(1) Interoperability and standardisation,
(2) monitoring and assessment of implementation,
(3) exchange of knowledge and
(4) global cooperation and positioning.

Thereby, the Joint Action functions also as a platform for operational and strategic cooperation between MS on eHealth including their relationship with eHealth Stakeholder Groups and Standardization Organizations.


Topic: 3.2 Promote the voluntary uptake of health innovation and e-Health by increasing the interoperability of patient registries and other e-Health solutions; support cooperation on e-Health in the Union, in particular on registries, and its uptake by health professionals. This will serve the voluntary network on e-Health set up by Directive 2011/24/EU.


The human population is confronted with emerging and re-emerging infectious pathogens that can cause serious cross-border outbreaks. A recent example is the Ebola outbreak requiring strong diagnostic, clinical, and public health measures in Europe and abroad in order to get this incident under control. The JA EMERGE is in compliance with the European policy (Decision No 1082/2013/EU) where the need for an efficient, rapid and coordinated response to high threat pathogens is defined. The JA EMERGE comprises a European network with more then 40 diagnostic laboratories focused on risk group 3 bacteria and risk groups 3 and 4 viruses. It will act in a so-called inter-epidemic mode (IEM) which can be activated and switched into an outbreak response mode (ORM) on request by the Health Security Committee in order to direct all activities to the outbreak management. A number of other laboratory networks, institutions and agencies are contributing to the management of cross-border infectious outbreaks. EMERGE will provide a platform for establishment and consolidation of a common, coordinated and effective response to infectious disease outbreaks at EU level and abroad (WP4). State of the art and new diagnostic methods for high threat pathogens, including in-house and commercial kits, will be evaluated for their applicability and recommended in outbreak situations when suitable (WP5). External quality assurance exercises will ensure best approaches for laboratory responsiveness in outbreak situations (WP6). These activities must be supported by an appropriate training to share best practices of diagnostics and bio-risk management (WP7). In conclusion, the general objective will be to ensure efficient response to serious emergent and re-emergent cross-border events by reinforcing the existing EU network of BSL 3 and BSL 4 laboratories which are already active in the field of identification of dangerous bacterial and viral human pathogens.


Topic: 2.3 Actions required by, or contributing to, the implementation of Union legislation in the fields of communicable diseases and other health threats, including those caused by biological and chemical incidents, environment and climate change. Such action may include activities aimed at facilitating the implementation, application, monitoring and review of that legislation.
