2.

European reference networks shall have at least three of the following objectives: to help realise the potential of European cooperation regarding highly specialised healthcare for patients and for healthcare systems by exploiting innovations in medical science and health technologies; to contribute to the pooling of knowledge regarding sickness prevention; to facilitate improvements in diagnosis and the delivery of high-quality, accessible and cost-effective healthcare for all patients with a medical condition requiring a particular concentration of expertise in medical domains where expertise is rare; to maximise the cost-effective use of resources by concentrating them where appropriate; to reinforce research, epidemiological surveillance like registries and provide training for health professionals; to facilitate mobility of expertise, virtually or physically, and to develop, share and spread information, knowledge and best practice and to foster developments of the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases, within and outside the networks; to encourage the development of quality and safety benchmarks and to help develop and spread best practice within and outside the network; to help Member States with an insufficient number of patients with a particular medical condition or lacking technology or expertise to provide highly specialised services of high quality.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-11 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.