DIGITAL INNOVATION IN THE HEALTH SECTOR - A DETERMINANT OF HEALTH STATUS. RECORDS IN THE EU

Financial risk represents one of the negative effects of the increase in life expectancy, generated especially by the increase in the number of long-term illnesses. The development of e-Health solutions is one of the main objectives of the European Union. Thus, the integration of digital innovations in the medical systems will lead to the acceleration of the medical prevention process, the determination of an early diagnosis offering the possibility of personalized care and treatment. The main objective of this paper is to identify the beneficial aspects of the latest discoveries in the field of technology on the state of health. Thus, the result obtained by applying the methods of multidimensional data analysis offers a perspective on how public digitization, in addition to the other socio-economic factors included in the Cluster Analysis, influences the improvement of the health status. Estonia is noted as Europe's digital leader, offering digitization solutions such as e-Residency, e-Governance, Digital ID, I-Vote and e-Health, with revolutionary benefits for patients. At the same time, we can notice a direct correlation between the years lived with disability and the average expenditure on health per capita, as people living in countries with higher expenditure on healthcare tend to live longer. The need for digital and technological innovation has increased the pace of innovation, as well as the investments in the R&D sector, making digital innovation an important determinant of health status. At the same time, a healthy silver population means active participation in social life, and improving health through digital innovations leads to an increase in healthy life expectancy and a positive correlation with life expectancy at the age of 65.