News
The State of the (European) Union
On 15 September, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her second State of the Union speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. She took stock of the achievements of the past year and looked ahead in terms of upcoming priorities and challenges, bringing up a variety of relevant issues within three main realms.
The BECA Beat
The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) met for the first time in September of 2020. BECA was established to create actionable recommendations for Member States and the EU to strengthen their collective response against cancer. Now, a year later, they have released their draft report "Strengthening Europe in the fight against cancer – towards a comprehensive and coordinated strategy,” written by BECA Rapporteur Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (Renew, FR). This significant milestone introduces the questions, what is next for BECA, and what role will the Avicenna Alliance play? Up until this point, the BECA report has been of key interest to the Alliance because it is one of the main items on the EU’s health agenda during the current trio of presidencies, and thus is an entry point to ensure in silico medicine is part of the EU’s health future.
Avicenna Alliance prepares for the next EU policy session
As September begins, politicians have returned to their EU posts and are preparing for what will be a busy few months for health policy. The Avicenna Alliance must also prepare to engage with policy-makers, draft amendments, and continue to advocate for policy changes that support the adoption of in-silico medicine.
Joint Research Centre of the Commission launches report on national strategies for Artificial Intelligence!
The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) recently published a new report titled “National strategies on Artificial Intelligence: A European perspective,” overarching five main policy areas: human capital, from the lab to the market, networking, regulation, and infrastructure. The report presents an updated review of national AI strategies from the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland.
Conference of the Slovenian Council Presidency addresses digital twin technologies and digitalisation in healthcare!
On 15 and 16 July, the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union organised a high-level conference on implementing innovative solutions for resilient health systems. The event, which was organised in a hybrid format, included policymakers, Member States representatives, experts and other key stakeholders.
WHO issues first global report on use of AI in healthcare
Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in health innovation are rapidly increasing, reflecting the potential of these technologies to address the challenges of ageing and workforce shortages. In light of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued the first global report on AI in health titled “Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for health”, establishing six guiding principles for its design and use.
