InfAct (Information for Action) is a JA on health information (HI). HI is essential to build up country specific and cross-country knowledge. HI is the basis to inform national health policies, to steer population health investment decisions, to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to enhance population health through promotion, prevention, treatments and care. Timely, up-to-date HI is also vital in framing EU wide programs and policies.

The major outcome expected of the JA is a sustainable solid infrastructure on EU HI through improving the availability of comparable, robust and policy-relevant health status data and health system performance information. Through country collaboration, the JA streamlines HI activities, reduces the data collection burden and works for a sustainable and robust data collection in Europe that facilitates and supports country knowledge, health research and policy making.

The JA gives attention to:

• develop the business case and roadmap for implementation of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium on Health Information for Research and Evidence-based Policy
o governance structures,
o national HI consortia and domain specific HI research networks
• assess HI systems (HIS) in MS and regions
• develop a roadmap for training in HI with the objective to tackle HI inequality through Europe
• standardize HI instruments, tools and methods
• strengthen the HI efficiency for public health policy through new ways of using health and non-health data sources
• enhance the introduction of the interoperability of health data sources
• enhance the translation of HI into public policy

The JA watches for the sustainability of all actions taken by the JA. Coordination, dialogue and interaction with the Commission Expert Groups on HI and on HSPA, Eurostat, DG Research and other relevant DGs, international organization (WHO, OECD) reinforce further the sustainability of the JAs’ work and outcomes.

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Topic: 3.7 Foster a health information and knowledge system to contribute to evidence-based decision-making, including the use of existing instruments, further development, where appropriate, of standardised health information and tools for monitoring health, collection and analysis of health data, the wide dissemination of the results of the Programme, and support to the Scientific Committees set up in accordance with Decision 2008/721/EC.
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The general objective of the Joint Action – Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer (iPAAC JA) is to develop innovative approaches to advances in cancer control. The innovation that will be covered within the JA consists of further development of cancer prevention, comprehensive approaches to the use of genomics in cancer control, cancer information and registries, improvements and challenges in cancer care, mapping of innovative cancer treatments and governance of integrated cancer control, including a new analysis of National Cancer Control Plans. The development of innovative approaches to cancer control will be supplemented by a Roadmap on Implementation and Sustainability of Cancer Control Actions, which will support Member States in implementation of iPAAC and CANCON recommendations. The Roadmap will act as the central pillar of the JA, integrating the diverse topic areas, providing synergies between the topics, ensuring consideration of transversal issues for all topics and acting as the central comprehensive deliverable, integrating all the JA outputs. A variety of methods will be used to fulfil the general and specific objectives including pilot studies, working groups, expert panels, literature review and surveys. A governmental board will be in place to ensure that implementation and sustainability in national contexts are duly considered for each topic area. The proposal for the iPAAC JA proposes actions to address objective 1 of the 2017 annual work programme, that is promoting health, preventing diseases and fostering supportive environments for healthy lifestyles taking into account the ‘health in all policies’ principle. The work to be developed by the iPAAC JA is complementary to the outcomes of the EPAAC and CANCON Joint Actions, funded by the Second and Third Health Programmes and will build on their outputs, using the stakeholder networks as an optimal base for the development of innovative cancer control actions.
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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.
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The action aims at supporting cooperation and coordination of Member States (MS) to improve their capacities at points of entry (PoE) including ports, airports and ground crossings, in preventing and combating cross-border health threats from the transport sector. In future public health emergencies of international concern, the action will move from interepidemic mode to emergency mode supporting coherent response as per Decision No 1082/2013/EU, International Health Regulations and temporary recommendations. The action objectives will be achieved through: a) facilitating exchange of identified best practices for management of public health events, vector surveillance and control, contingency planning, validated preparedness and response plans and options for improved detection and surveillance of public health events at PoE; b) supporting MS in validating contingency plans by using assessment tools and conduct of tabletop/simulation exercises; c) providing distance and face-to-face training at local, national, European levels about contingency planning and management of events due to infections, vectors, chemical, environmental or other agents at PoE; d) supporting rapid information exchange through electronic tools by the established network for PoE; e) supporting execution of inspections on ships and airplanes; f) producing guidelines to be used by MS for dealing with chemical threats, inter-country communication and information flow in outbreak investigations and management of events on ships, for vector surveillance and control activities at PoE, for inspecting aircrafts and ships including their cargoes for vectors and auditing guidelines for hygiene inspections on ships; g) supporting intersectorial cooperation by promoting implementation of MoU among different sectors at PoE and organizing exchange of visits and exercises among PoE of neighbouring countries. The action falls under the thematic priority 2.2 of Annex I of the 2017 Annual Work Programme.
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Topic: 2.2 Support capacity-building against health threats in Member States, including, where appropriate, cooperation with neighbouring countries: develop preparedness and response planning taking into account, and coordinating with, global initiatives, components of generic and specific preparedness planning, public health response coordination, non-binding approaches on vaccination; address the increasing health threats resulting from global population movements; develop guidelines on protective measures in an emergency situation, guidelines on information and guides to good practice; contribute to the framework for a voluntary mechanism, including the introduction of optimal vaccination coverage to effectively combat the resurgence in infectious diseases and for joint procurement of medical countermeasures; develop coherent communication strategies.
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