European medical device trade association Eucomed has made adoption of technology to remotely monitor implantable cardiac devices a key element of its four recently submitted proposals to the European Commission Innovation Union Strategy's Active and Healthy Ageing Innovation Partnership program.

Eucomed has advocated greater use of remote monitoring of cardiac devices among EU health care providers in order to both improve chronic cardiac care and reduce costs by potentially more than €5.6 billion annually. But facilitating widespread adoption of remote monitoring devices will require setting up permanent reimbursement mechanisms, Eucomed argues, as current models do not properly account for these capabilities. The other three proposals Eucomed has submitted to the European Commission include:

• Developing procurement systems such as those in the UK and Sweden that prioritize innovative products
• Facilitating research on the influences of national and local procurement decisions
• Establishing more effective community care in lieu of hospitalization for conditions such as stoma, wounds and incontinence