European Patients Forum, logo.

Building on the Success of the Empowerment Campaign - Let's Explore the Roadmap!

©Stock

A major milestone of our recent campaign on Patient Empowerment has just been published. The Roadmap for Action proposes concrete actions policymakers, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders across the EU can take to drive positive change.

Patients with chronic conditions are often referred to as the most under-used resource in the health system. Patient-centred models have demonstrated better quality of care and lower costs. And yet, too many patients are still struggling to get the support they need to become equal partners in care, and policy is too often made without meaningful patient input.

To tackle this challenge, EPF launched a campaign on patient empowerment in 2015. To highlight the leading role of the patient community and the contribution that patients can make collectively, the campaign was called “Patients Prescribe E5 for Sustainable Health systems” where “E5” stands for five aspects of empowerment (see here, in 16 languages).

During the year of the campaign, EPF developed tools for raising awareness about what patient empowerment really means, and reflected on what changes are needed in the system.

Our campaign resulted in the Patient’s Charter on Patient Empowerment (2016), which spells out the 10 fundamental principles of empowerment from the patient perspective; and a Roadmap for Action, proposing concrete measure to make empowerment a reality. The Roadmap makes recommendations in eight priority areas:

  1. Health literacy and information
  2. Professional training and skills
  3. Self-management support
  4. Patient-driven technology solutions
  5. Patient involvement in patient safety
  6. Patient-centredness in healthcare
  7. Patient involvement across the R&D lifecycle
  8. Patient involvement in health policy

We hope the Roadmap will provide direction and inspiration for action for the engagement of a wide range of health stakeholders – patients, policymakers, different health/social care professionals, and sometimes commercial actors. EPF calls for a new, much more collaborative mind-set to cut through existing “silos” in the organisation and delivery of care, and to develop solutions together – always with patients as partners.

Contact person:

Kaisa Immonen, Director of Policy.