JA CHRODIS Final Conference - New Initiative Coming Up!

The final conference of the EU Joint Action on Chronic Diseases and promoting healthy ageing across the life-cycle (CHRODIS) will take place on 27 and 28 February in Brussels. The event will mark the end of a three-year journey involving a consortium of 71 partners from 25 Member States, under the leadership of the Spanish Health Institute Carlos III.

With the premise of addressing chronic conditions, the Joint Action CHRODIS looks at promoting and facilitating the exchange and transfer of good practices between European countries and regions. The three-year project focuses specifically on health promotion, the prevention and management of multi-morbidity in chronic conditions and diabetes.

The final conference will gather over 200 participants from all over Europe in representation of national and regional authorities, academia, patient organisations, industry and healthcare professionals. The meeting will provide the opportunity to discuss how CHRODIS outputs and outcomes can help meet current and future challenges in European healthcare systems.

How EPF has contributed to the Joint Action

Together with our member IDF Europe on diabetes-related topics, and with support from other patient representatives, EPF contributed to the achievement of the CHRODIS’ objectives and facilitated the integration of patients’ views in the definition of quality criteria for the selection of good practices on patient empowerment, diabetes and multi-morbidity. We also took part in the validation process of the multi-morbidity care model and outlined recommendations for the case management training programme, helping identify essential professional skills for healthcare professionals.

Results and impact on the patient community

All work streams have yielded important and meaningful results, bearing a positive impact on the patient community. Perhaps one of the most important results is the effective integration of the patient perspective in the Joint Action’s activities, from their design to implementation and validation. This achievement comes very much in line with the EPF Strategic Goal on Patients’ involvement, and emphasises the strong concordance between our projects and our strategic work plan.

Next steps

For EPF and many of the partners, the journey is not over as we now have the opportunity to implement the recommendations and models designed by CHRODIS, in the new Joint Action CHRODIS Plus which is expected to kick off by the second semester of 2017. We will of course keep you updated on this important projects for patients in Europe.

Contact person:

Valentina Strammiello: valentina.strammiello@eu-patient.eu