COCIR currently is gearing up for the numerous activities it has planned for Autumn-Winter 2020.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our forthcoming events have been converted to a virtual format. The focus of our upcoming events will be on supporting our priorities in Digital Health and on Cancer.

The European Week of Regions and Cities provided the ideal opportunity for discussing the best way to leverage European funds to improve healthcare over the course of the next seven years. The COCIR event, entitled "How can digital health drive cohesion in Europe? – Unlocking EU Cohesion and Structural Funds to provide better healthcare", in partnership with Siemens Healthineers, was held on 14 October. This sought to develop specific recommendations on how EU funds could be used to support innovative health solutions - particularly digital - for the benefit of the patients across Europe.

You can download the presentations from the event here. COCIR will shortly issue a final event report, which will include the conclusions and recommendations considered through the breakout sessions.

October is International Breast Cancer Awareness Month. COCIR is delighted to support this global campaign with a virtual session, organised in partnership with the Anticancer Fund, entitled: “Can we improve the future of Breast Cancer Care in the EU?". The event was held on 21 October; the programme and presentations can be found here.

October is also European Cybersecurity Month. COCIR remains active and engaged at European and international levels on this topic through a dedicated group of experts. We developed an industry paper complete with seven recommendations for consideration by European, national and regional regulators. You can read our paper here.

Last month, as DITTA - and in collaboration with IMDRF - organised a highly successful virtual workshop on 21 September. This brought together regulators from various jurisdictions as well as hospital providers and industries, and was attended by more than 350 participants. The presentations and video from the event are available here

Looking ahead, November is International Lung Cancer Awareness Month. COCIR has chosen to organise a virtual session, in partnership with ESR and LuCE, entitled: “How can Europe’s ‘Beating Cancer Plan’ drive implementation of Lung Cancer Screening programmes across Europe?“ on 4 November. The programme and registration details for the event can be found here

The deployment of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare is increasingly bringing its benefits to the healthcare sector and patients. COCIR has recently published an in-depth analysis on the application of medical device legislation to AI. Our COCIR publication is available here. We will continue with our efforts, and will publish additional new AI use cases very soon - don’t miss them!

More news to follow in this challenging year.

Nicole Denjoy

October 2020