Evaluating Care across Borders (ECAB). Analysing arrangements of cooperation between actors located in different EU countries that aim to transfer patients, providers, products, services, funding or knowledge across the border.

Aims
To identify and analyse arrangements of cooperation between actors located in different EU countries that aim to transfer patients, providers, products, services, funding or knowledge across the border which separates them. Current gaps in documentation of already existing cross-border collaboration activities as regards geographical coverage, availability and quality of data need to be addressed. On this basis a systematic in-depth analysis of the potential impact of cross-border collaboration on the wider healthcare system should be undertaken. Primary data collected in this project should close existing gaps and the findings of this research should enable national and European decision-makers to correctly assess the scale of existing cross-border care cooperation and its potential implications for the national healthcare system. 

The aim of ECAB is to facilitate a process whereby Europe’s citizens can make informed choices about whether to seek health care in another Member State and, if they so choose, to ensure that the administrative and clinical processes are straightforward and ensure continuity of care. It takes as its starting point the recent draft Directive on Patients’ Rights, augmented by the existing body of research on cross-border care. It then focuses on those areas where the necessary information is incomplete and seeks to fill the gaps. It is equally important to state what it does not do. It does not seek to quantify the scale of movement because our earlier research reveals this to be a dynamic area where data are often unavailable and rapidly become out of date. ECAB firstly examines five aspects of health care delivery where it is necessary for procedures to be compatible if patients are to be assured that the care they receive is safe, of adequate quality, and capable of providing continuity where some parts of the overall care process are provided in different Member States.
These are: provisions with regard to

• the continuing quality of health professionals, 
• treatment pathways,
• public reporting of quality, 
• content and scope of medical records, and 
• medical prescribing.

Secondly, it looks at three areas where there is already cross-border collaboration, to identify practical issues that have arisen and how they have, or have not been addressed. These areas of practice are collaborations between hospitals in border areas, telemedicine, and dentistry. The research on the first set of topics generally takes place on two levels. The first involves a series of pan-European surveys to identify the nature of the phenomenon in, as far as possible, all Member States. The second involves focused studies in key subject areas that capture important issues. The methods used are both quantitative and qualitative and involve contributions from a broad range of disciplines. There is a strong emphasis on dissemination of policy-relevant findings, taking advantage of the strong existing links of the research team with national and European policy-makers.