Measuring Patient-Centred Health Outcomes: An Indispensable Tool To Improve Health Systems

On 15 March MEPs, the European Commission and different stakeholders met to discuss how the effectiveness and quality of health care can be measured and how measuring health outcomes can improve health systems in Europe.

MEPs Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, Bulgaria) and Carlos Zorrinho (S&D, Portugal) hosted this cross-party event that raised awareness about unprecedented challenges faced by health systems across Europe, such as ageing populations and the legacy of the economic crisis. The discussion focused on health outcomes and the ways to use them to improve quality of care for patients, strengthen public health interventions, and contribute to wider economic goals and societal well-being.

Susanna Palkonen, Director of the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA) represented EPF on the high-level panel. She highlighted the importance of co-designing outcome measures with patients to ensure that they capture what really matters. She advocated measuring patients’ priorities not only related to health but also well-being and quality of life – including things that help patients to stay active, to stay at work, and go about their lives as part of the society, which in turn would be beneficial for European economies.

The event was also the opportunity to present “Enhancing Value in European Health Systems: the Role of Outcomes Measurement”, a consensus document developed in collaboration with various European health stakeholders. The report showcases good practices and illustrates the role of health for Europe’s sustainable growth and prosperity, as well as the importance of measuring the outcomes for greater transparency and accountability for health system performance across countries.

EPF participated in the drafting of the paper and is fully endorsing its conclusions, with a view towards doing further work on patient-reported outcome measures and patient experience measures (PROMs and PREMs) to ensure the patient perspective is at the heart of health systems performance measurement. 

Contact person: Sara Gayarre, Communications Intern.