Fighting poor medication adherence in the European Union: The Gravitate-Health project

Nowadays, European citizens can obtain a great amount of information (online and offline) about any medicine. However, this information is in many cases unreliable and difficult to understand, encouraging medication nonadherence. As already published by the OECD, poor medication adherence leads to more than 200,000 premature deaths in Europe every year. As a response to this, a public-private partnership has emerged (01 November 2020) between more than 39 members in Europe and the US, under the co-leadership of the University of Oslo and Pfizer, and founded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). This project has been given the name “Gravitate-Health Project”.

What is the aim of the “Gravitate-Health PROJECT”?

This public-private partnership aims to digitally provide citizens with proper, relevant and adequate information in order to promote a safer use of medicines (adherence to treatment) and consequently, improve health outcomes and quality of life.

This goal will be reached with the help of Gravitate Lens (G-Lens), a digital health information tool which “will focus (but not conceal or filter) approved information on medicines and guide patients to understandable, trustworthy, up-to-date information that meets the patient’s needs and fits with their health context and literacy levels” ( https://www.imi.europa.eu/projects-results/project-factsheets/gravitate-health). This tool will be supported by an open source digital platform.

This project will deliver:

• The aforementioned open source digital health information platform, including understandable health information from different trusted sources.
• A White Paper including recommendations on future access, understanding and use of digital services.

Important Facts and Figures of the Project

This project was launched on 01 November 2020, with a scheduled duration of five years and a budget of EUR18,500,000.

The Members of the Gravitate-Health project can be consulted by clicking on the following link: https://www.imi.europa.eu/projects-results/project-factsheets/gravitate-health (IMI website).

The Gravitate-Health Project is currently at its initial stage, so it will take some time for the work done by the Members to be made public and widely available.

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