In recent years, the globe has faced a series of topics of growing concern, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the international financial crisis, rising socio-economic inequalities, the negative outcomes of greenhouse gas emissions, which resulted in climate change, and many others. Organizations worldwide have confronted these new challenges of sustainable finance by incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors and digital transformation (DT) in their innovation business strategies. The healthcare sector represents a large share of the global economy (about 10% of global economic output), employs a large number of workers, and needs to rely more on an open innovation model where interested parties, especially patients, are going to have a say in their own well-being. Thus, it is imperative that healthcare providers be efficient, effective, resilient, and sustainable in the face of significant challenges and risks. At the same time, they must offer sustainable development goals and digital transformation to healthcare users through limited governmental resources. This study investigates the role, importance, and correlation of ESG factors and digital transformation to the sustainable finance of healthcare systems through an innovative model. The main purpose of the paper is to present the already implemented ESG and DT factors in the healthcare sector and to propose a mutual and combined implementation strategy based on common evaluation tools, methods, and actions. A set of proposed actions and strategies are presented for the sustainability and resilience of the healthcare sector.

Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are the main end-users of digital clinical tools such as electronic prescription systems. For this reason, it is of high importance to include HCPs throughout the design, development and evaluation of a newly introduced system to ensure its usefulness, as well as confirm that it tends to their needs and can be integrated in their everyday clinical practice. In the context of the PrescIT project, an electronic prescription platform with three services was developed (i.e., Prescription Check, Prescription Suggestion, Therapeutic Prescription Monitoring). To allow an iterative process of discovery through user feedback, design and implementation, a two-phase evaluation was carried out, with the participation of HCPs from three hospitals in Northern Greece. The two-phase evaluation included presentations of the platform, followed by think-aloud sessions, individual platform testing and the collection of qualitative as well as quantitative feedback, through standard questionnaires (e.g., SUS, PSSUQ). Twenty one HCPs (8 in the first, 18 in the second phase, and five present in both) participated in the two-phase evaluation. HCPs comprised clinicians varying in their specialty and one pharmacist. Clinicians' feedback during the first evaluation phase already deemed usability as "excellent" (with SUS scores ranging from 75 to 95/100, showing a mean value of 86.6 and SD of 9.2) but also provided additional user requirements, which further shaped and improved the services. In the second evaluation phase, clinicians explored the system's usability, and identified the services' strengths and weaknesses. Clinicians perceived the platform as useful, as it provides information on potential adverse drug reactions, drug-to-drug interactions and suggests medications that are compatible with patients' comorbidities and current medication. The developed PrescIT platform aims to increase overall safety and effectiveness of healthcare services. Therefore, including clinicians in a two-phase evaluation confirmed that the introduced system is useful, tends to the users' needs, does not create fatigue and can be integrated in their everyday clinical practice to support clinical decision and e-prescribing.

While Electronic Prescription Systems (EPS) adoption varies across EU Member States, there's a lack of comprehensive comparative analysis. Existing studies focus on single EPSs, employ diverse methodologies, and lack up-to-date data. This study fills this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of EPS development, functionalities, and usage statistics in each EU Member State. Most EU Member States widely adopted EPS by 2022, with exceptions including Germany, France, and Luxembourg, where pilot projects or just plans existed at that time. Out of the 27 EPSs, 25 employ a similar design featuring a central server and end-user software or web-based applications. Among these, 22 are structured as single national systems. The fundamental technical solution is remarkably similar across the EU. Despite these similarities, functionalities, authentication methods, prescription validity, and medication coverage differ significantly among EPSs. A multinational team, including co-authors from each EU Member State, collected data using a structured questionnaire. The study underscores the need for standardized methodologies in EPS research and emphasizes the importance of comprehensive comparative analysis to inform healthcare policies and digitalization efforts.

Background: Sustainability in healthcare has gained increasing importance due to its impact on environmental, financial, and social strategies, as well as on public health, and therefore, relevant policies and actions can also play a significant role in telemedicine services. The establishment of a sustainable telemedicine network at a country level is important to improve access to healthcare, reduce costs, increase convenience, and ensure the continuity of service delivery. However, there are significant environmental, social, technological, human, and governance challenges to meet the sustainability conditions for these networks. Methods: Thus, a narrative literature review was conducted to investigate the telemedicine implementation aspects and the sustainability dimensions in a unified approach and integrated strategy in order to develop a more resilient and equitable healthcare solution, ensuring its long-term integration into healthcare systems. Results: This paper aims to identify critical factors related to the proposed governance model for the National Telemedicine Network in Greece (EDIT) that influence sustainability requirements and interdisciplinary strategies to address relevant challenges. Conclusions: By examining these factors, the paper seeks to propose the fundamental pillars of a sustainable telemedicine framework and the methodology for developing a sustainability plan that will enhance EDIT’s capacities toward a sustainable and resilient operation of telemedicine as a standard practice within the Greek healthcare system.

The UNICOM Test Lab enhances patient safety and healthcare efficiency by implementing ISO’s IDMP standards across the EU. Funded by the EU’s HORIZON Programme, this initiative unites diverse stakeholders to enable the seamless exchange of medicinal product information. This paper details the interoperability challenges and methodologies employed, highlighting the UNICOM Test Lab’s role in validating and testing tools for IDMP standards implementation, aiming for semantic interoperability and a safe pharmaceutical supply chain within the EU.