From innovation to access: can Europe become a launchpad for breakthrough cardiovascular care?

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Health Systems

18Nov2026

starts 19:00

ends 21:30

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Europe’s healthcare systems face mounting pressure from rising demand, ageing populations, workforce shortages and constrained budgets, making timely access to innovations that improve patient outcomes and deliver system-wide efficiencies increasingly important.

Breakthrough innovation can help address severe unmet medical needs and life-threatening conditions where treatment options remain limited. Beyond improving patient outcomes, these technologies can reduce length of stay, lower complication rates and help hospitals and health systems use scarce clinical capacity more efficiently. Yet access remains uneven and often slow.

Recent developments at EU level, including the EU Safe Hearts Plan, the revision of the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and the EU Health Technology Assessment Regulation, have put breakthrough innovation higher on the European agenda. The next challenge is translating this recognition into patient access and uptake. As discussions on the Multiannual Financial Framework and public procurement rules advance, Europe has an opportunity to ensure that dedicated funding, investment and procurement frameworks support the adoption and scale-up of breakthrough technologies across Member States.

However, financing and regulatory recognition are only part of the answer. Even when a breakthrough technology is approved, reimbursed and clinically validate, health systems need the training, skills and competences to deploy it safely and at scale. Complex procedures often remain concentrated in a handful of specialised centres, and shortages of trained specialists, nurses and support staff can leave life-changing innovations underused even where the clinical and economic case is clear. Building this capacity is as much a condition for adoption as funding and calls for the same coordinated approach at European level.

The dinner will bring together EU and national policymakers, clinicians, patient representatives, academics and the private sector to explore what needs to change for breakthrough cardiovascular innovations to reach patients. The discussion will focus on how funding, investment, procurement and skills frameworks can work together to accelerate uptake and strengthen the sustainability of European health systems.

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Schedule

How can the EU and member states ensure that recognition of breakthrough innovation in the MDR and HTA frameworks is matched by the funding and investment needed to support its adoption?
What role can the Multiannual Financial Framework, EU funding programmes and public procurement reforms play in accelerating uptake of breakthrough innovation?
What best practices from Europe and beyond could help build a sustainable ecosystem — combining funding, procurement and workforce skills — for breakthrough healthcare innovation?

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Discussants

Niklas BLOMBERG is the Executive Director of Innovative Health Initiative JU (IHI.europa.eu), the European public-private partnership for health research and innovation. In the IHI Public-Private partnership, he brings together industry, academic and civil society across the healthcare sector – from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to medical technology and big data – and drives projects that address public health needs, improve patients’ lives, and boost the competitiveness of Europe’s health industries. Prior to this role Niklas was founding Director of ELIXIR, the European life science research data infrastructure, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Before that he lead teams at AstraZeneca in Sweden and the UK.

A member of the regional executive leadership team at Edwards Lifesciences, Andrea Rappagliosi leads the company’s government affairs, market access, communication and patients advocacy engagement. He previously worked at Sanofi as the vice-president of European public affairs, prior to which he held positions in the public affairs and market access policy area at Baxter Healthcare, Serono International and GSK. A founding member of the Global Policy Forum at HTAi, the scientific and professional society for those who produce or use health technology assessment (HTA), Rappagliosi currently chairs the MedTech Europe HTA Committee and serves on the Board of the European Patient Safety Foundation (EUPSF).

Tamsin Rose is a facilitator who was until recently a senior fellow for health at Friends of Europe. Having studied international relations, she has 25 years of experience working across the European continent from Ireland to Mongolia. A natural communicator, Tamsin has been a radio reporter, worked on press for the EU Delegation in Moscow and is currently a member of the external speaker team for the European Commission Directorate-General for Communication, describing how the EU works and key policies to visitor groups from around the world. Since 2002, she has specialised in public health and public participation issues, serving as the Secretary General of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), and providing strategic advice for health groups on how to engage successfully with the EU.

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