This working paper provides evidence of and arguments for the importance of territorial cooperation in the development and transformation of citizen-centric digital healthcare (eHealth). It presents novel analyses of recent policies, initiatives and investments, visualised through maps and emphasised through a selection of good practice cases. It provides a series of recommendations on how to support, speed up and scale up the necessary digital innovation and organisational change across the EU that are required to transform the way we receive and provide healthcare services, benefiting people, healthcare systems and the economy no matter the geographical location. 

The working paper is meant to inform and inspire policymakers and stakeholders at various geographical levels who are dealing with the digital transformation of healthcare. More specifically, these are legislators, administrators, healthcare providers and data, technology, innovation and procurement specialists working in the relevant fields. 

It aims to support and provide evidence to shape Europe’s digital future in healthcare and links to Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare, the digital single market strategy, the European digital decade, common health data spaces, the General Data Protection Regulation, eHealth digital service infrastructure and the European Commission’s priorities.

In addition, it highlights the importance of the strategic alignment of national and regional health and care policies with the EU priority areas to fully benefit from the funding opportunities that are becoming available through programmes and instruments such as EU4Health, Digital Europe, Horizon Europe, the competitiveness and innovation framework, the seventh framework programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund Plus and InvestEU programmes from as early as 2021.