Overview
The Hellenic Digital Health Cluster (HDHC) is the first private organization focusing on the exploitation of digital health innovations in Greece. It was founded in March 2021 in Athens. It is the dynamic initiative of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), the largest research centre in Greece, and includes 30 innovative and dynamic companies in the digital health ecosystem in Greece and internationally. HDHC aims to place Greece among the leading countries in the field of digital health.
HDHC is a cluster organization legal entity that strengthens the resilience of the Greek digital health ecosystem through networking and supporting actions. HDHC builds the innovation capacity of its members, especially SMEs, by providing or channeling specialized and customized business support services and upskilling. It creates links between academic and research institutions with the industry to facilitate the adoption of processes and technologies reinforcing transformation and enhancing the digital economy. HDHC boosts access to global supply and value chains as a facilitator of strategic partnering across clusters.
The Motivation Behind Joining VELES
HDHC’s and VELES‘ visions are perfectly aligned. On one hand, HDHC focuses on promoting innovation and fostering cooperation for the provision of high-quality health services to citizens. Its mission has the following aims:
- Concentration and interconnection of the most important organizations active in the field of digital health in Greece
- Growing them, strengthening their innovation potential, and their extroversion
- Strengthening the Greek digital health ecosystem so that Greece can be included among the dominant countries in the field of digital health
- Innovation actions
- Improving the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and acting as a mediator between authorities, society and business.
At the same time, VELES aims to foster health data sharing regional and national strategies, to secure improved clinical practice, to preserve patient privacy and to empower citizens’ smart healthcare through access to innovative, cyber secure and data-driven digital health services.
HDHC, as a cluster organization with a diverse profile of cluster members related to digital health, is in an advantageous position to support the development of a Regional Smart Health Data Space in Greece, that will include a novel transformational framework, R&I and investment strategy and action plan for research, development and adoption of innovative and secure digital solutions that underpin the delivery of sustainable healthcare services.
VELES is a significantly innovative initiative for the national digital health-related ecosystem, but also for the establishment of the European Health Data Space. HDHC expects that the exploitation efforts that will occur in collaboration with the cluster members will ensure the effective sustainability of VELES’ results.
At a national level, they foresee that they will reach the relevant Ministries for Health/ Digitalization/Education& R&DI, regional authorities, civil society organizations and relevant public health departments, which will enhance the innovation uptake, putting Greece at the center of European digital transformation. Additionally, they will transfer smart health knowledge and good practices from other EU countries into Greece and support innovation uptake education and training, as well as policy and investment strategies.
Responsibilities & Contribution
As a cluster organization, HDHC will bring the insights and difficulties of the Greek health data ecosystem that will be derived from the engagement of our cluster members and relevant stakeholders. Being the leader of Work Package 2, they will coordinate the project’s first important steps to examine the special characteristics of the Smart Health Regional ecosystems in the partner countries, such as the local problems and challenges, the key stakeholders, as well as, performing a comparative gap analysis in Smart Health research, innovation and business, uptake capabilities & needs.
At regional and national levels, they will highly contribute to:
- providing a transition path focusing on better smart health services and efficient data exploitation
- proposing a joint framework for digital transformation and delivery projects
- facilitating the validation process through the organization of discussion sessions with key stakeholders
- the design and implementation of the pilot use case in Greece, on cancer treatment
- civil society and policy engagement, while playing a key role in it, since HDHC bridges the gap between academia, public authorities, SMEs and corporates in Greece.
Finally, being a cluster, HDHC can connect different stakeholders, projects and initiatives and create synergies among different actors to maximize the impact of VELES.
