DADE – Digital Health Innovation expert meeting

EMCDDA studies on the impact of COVID-19 containment measures on the provision of drug services in Europe highlighted a rapid and widespread adoption of online communication methods and telemedicine. The movement of core drug treatment modalities online and the increased use of virtual technologies to support more conventional treatment approaches was observed in some countries. This rapid proliferation of online treatment and harm reduction interventions builds on a foundation of interventions already existing before the pandemic. To understand the possibilites and challenges of these approaches, there is a need to map and categorise the types of digital interventions available for the provision of drug services (telemedicine, telehealth, e- and m-health, online treatment, etc.) and to develop a taxonomy. In addition, it is essential to identify inclusion and exclusion criteria to select (and to evaluate) case studies.

The meeting will convene a restricted number of experts with varying levels and types of expertise to comment and find consensus over the taxonomy, the inclusion/exclusion criteria and the case studies identified by the contractors (University of St Andrews, UK) in agreement with the EMCDDA project manager. A second part of the meeting will be opened to more participants, including potential e-health recipients, people with lived experience and drugs services managers.

DADE stands for Digital AdDictions sErvices.