Scaling Digital Health Solutions: Connecting TEFs, EDIHs and DIGITAL for Health Innovation

From innovation to system-wide impact: why this event matters

Healthcare sector is undergoing rapid digital transformation, much like other sectors. Artificial intelligence, robotics, and data-driven solutions are increasingly being integrated into clinical workflows, prevention strategies, and health system management — supported by investments through the Digital Europe Programme.

Yet the key challenge is no longer the availability of innovation, but how to move from pilot and validation to large-scale adoption. In healthcare, this is particularly complex: solutions must be secure, interoperable, and compliant with strict regulatory frameworks that vary across countries. SMEs often face additional barriers in navigating these requirements and scaling beyond local deployments. As a result, promising solutions remain fragmented—tested in isolated environments or deployed locally without clear pathways for replication across regions or health systems.

Initiatives such as TEFs, EDIHs, European data spaces, and digital skills programmes each support part of this journey. However, they are often perceived as disconnected building blocks rather than a coherent, scalable pipeline—leaving stakeholders uncertain about how to move from experimentation to real, system-wide uptake.

A unified journey through the DIGITAL health ecosystem

The central message is that impact at scale requires continuity across the innovation pipeline. Testing and Experimentation Facilities provide controlled and real-world environments where AI and robotics solutions can be validated in healthcare settings, ensuring safety, compliance, and performance.

European Digital Innovation Hubs act as trusted intermediaries, enabling healthcare providers and SMEs to access “test before invest” services, technical expertise, and support for integration into operational environments.

To move beyond deployment, the Digital Europe Programme plays a critical role in scaling solutions across borders, enabling interoperability, replication, and uptake at system level.

Together with European health data spaces(EHDS) and advanced digital skills initiatives from DIGITAL, these elements form a complete pathway from validation to large-scale adoption.

Strengthening the connections between them:

• reduces fragmentation,
• accelerates uptake,
• and maximises the impact of public investment.