Considering the rapidly changing healthcare context, the Procure4Health Action Plan is designed to serve as a comprehensive roadmap, helping health and care organisations transform their procurement processes and accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions.
The Action Plan is designed to be a practical, easy-to-use guide. It aims to support efforts to drive innovation, improve patient outcomes, and ensure sustainability when implementing innovation procurement. To make it as useful as possible, it’s the content is structured in a way to allow readers easily navigate to the sections most relevant to them- although reading the full document is recommended for a complete understanding.
A Step-by-Step Guide for decision-makers The Procure4Health Action Plan goes beyond outlining high-level strategies – it provides a detailed step-by-step guide to help decision-makers put them into practice. Whether it is establishing new processess, designing sustainable srategies, or adopting digital solutions, this guide is tailored to support and care organisations in their Innocation Porucremenet journey.
The Action Plan framework consist of four parts:
- Vision and mission – the plan’s vision is to enable more efficient, effective, and equitable health and social care services, and the mission is to enhance innovation procurement capacity and collaboration
- Action Areas – The four action areas—Sustainability, Digital Healthcare, Integrated Care, and Precision & Predictive Medicine—address specific challenges and were developed through extensive collaboration across working groups.
- Strategic themes – Two cross-cutting themes—Value-Based Procurement and Impactful Innovation—underpin all Action Areas. These concepts help shift the focus from cost-driven decisions to long-term value, placing improved patient outcomes, system efficiency, and sustainability at the forefront of procurement efforts.
- Requirements in Action Areas – This section outlines the specific requirements, needs, barriers, tools and techniques, best practices, and steps for action required in each action area to implement them effectively.
- From needs to actionable implementation steps: The Action Plan supports health and care procurers by addressing common challenges, offering practical tools, showcasing inspiring good practices, and providing step-by-step guidance—helping them align with end-user needs, navigate complex systems, and implement innovative, sustainable solutions effectively.
- If you would like to know more watch the Action plan webinar recording here: https://procure4health.eu/repository/
The key Action Areas and Strategic Themes are:
1. Sustainability
Sustainability means meeting present needs without compromising future generations and includes ecological, social, and economic dimensions. In health and care procurement, this involves acquiring goods that are environmentally and socially responsible while staying within economic limits. Environmentally, this includes reducing waste and pollution with eco-friendly products. Socially, it ensures decent working conditions across the value chain. Economically, it emphasises financial stability and integrity, including anti-corruption measures.
2. Digital healthcare
Digital healthcare uses technologies like mobile devices, diagnostic tools, and remote monitoring to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health services. Innovation procurement in digital health helps providers identify and adopt cutting-edge, secure, and scalable digital solutions. These solutions aim to enhance care quality, access, and system resilience. A structured approach is needed to assess their impact and adapt procurement strategies accordingly.
3. Integrated care
Integrated care connects and coordinates services across all levels of healthcare, including both horizontal (e.g., multi-professional teams) and vertical (e.g., primary to tertiary care) integration. It is key for managing complex patient needs, such as chronic conditions or mental health. The goal is to improve patient experience, health outcomes, cost-efficiency, and provider well-being—the “quadruple aim.” Success depends on prioritizing integration areas and offering holistic solutions that go beyond products to include services, education, and support.
4. Predictive and precision medicine (PPM)
Predictive and precision medicine (PPM) personalises disease prevention and treatment based on individual risk factors using tools like genomic analysis, biomarkers, and targeted therapies. It goes beyond molecular approaches by integrating social, psychological, and physical factors for holistic care. Advances in genomics, pharmacogenomics, AI, and wearable tech are driving innovation in PPM. Public procurers play a key role in enabling its implementation by acquiring the right technologies, ensuring governance, and building necessary competencies.
5. Value Based Procurement
Value-Based Procurement involves making purchasing decisions based on how a product or solution can best deliver the outcomes being measured and reduce the total cost of care, rather than focusing solely on the lowest price. It is part of a broader Value-Based HealthCare ecosystem that aims to improve health outcomes and achieve the greatest value from available resources. Value-based payment models align reimbursement with value-based care, encouraging risk-sharing and coordinated care. VBP ensures innovations meet real patient needs and uses Outcome-Based Agreements to share financial risk while building evidence of effectiveness.
6. Impactful Innovation
Numerous innovations fail to survive the “valley of death” of pilots and never get adopted. Impactful innovation principles aim to maximise the likelihood that successfully piloted innovations are deployed and achieve the greatest possible impact. The Procure4Health Impactful Innovation Working Group has developed methodologies and tools to support the uptake and exploitation of results. These resources help align stakeholders and secure commitment early in the process. Partners using demand-driven co-creation tools like Pre-Commercial Procurement can benefit from these approaches to increase the impact of their innovation projects.
Why download the Action Plan for Innovation Procurement?
With clear, actionable insights and a strategic framework, the Procure4Health Action Plan is the ultimate resource for operational decision-makers looking to embrace innovation and revolutionise healthcare procurement.
Ready to be part of the healthcare innovation revolution? Download the Action Plan for Innovation Procurement now and start implementing the strategies that will transform your organisation and improve healthcare delivery on a global scale. Let’s build a healthier future through smarter procurement!
