A new Joint Action on Chronic Disease in sight
A new Joint Action on Chronic Disease will take place in 2014. The project has been submitted under the Public Health Programme and is pending approval. EPF will play a key role in the Joint Action, together with partners comprising member states and other stakeholders.
Member states identified a joint action under the 2013 health programme as the next step forward in the EU Chronic Disease Reflection process. Such action will help to find options for an optimal EU response to the challenge of demographic ageing and increase in chronic diseases.
The objectives are three-steps folded:
- To map across Europe new innovative actions (social media, behavioural science and new technologies) as well as more traditional actions on risk factors
- To examine barriers to uptake for prevention in screening risk groups, and treatment of major chronic diseases (using diabetes as an example)
- To see how to address multi-morbidity and other complex issues in the framework of chronic diseases.
It is very important that EPF promotes the interest of patients in this Joint Action. The reflection process identified the focus on patient empowerment and health literacy in relation to chronic disease management as a key theme to be tackled.
“The patients’ perspective on chronic disease is unique: patients live with their disease, learn to manage it, and to navigate the health system to get the right care. This is why we believe that patients play a key role in identifying unmet service needs, pointing out inefficiencies and waste in the system, and ensuring that strategies to address chronic disease are effective and sustainable” explained Kaisa Immonen-Charalambous, EPF Senior Policy Adviser.
If officially approved, the joint action will last three years and contribute to ultimately produce an EU strategy on chronic diseases focusing on the sustainability of health systems.
Please click here to read the EPF response to the Commission’s stakeholder consultation on Chronic Diseases