Roadmap for Action
This Roadmap for Action on Patient Empowerment has been developed by the European Patients’ Forum in the context of our Campaign on Patient Empowerment. It accompanies the Charter on Patient Empowerment, proposing a series of concrete actions towards realising the fundamental principles expressed in the Charter. The Roadmap is divided into eight priority areas, reflecting the priorities of the Charter as well as recommendations arising from the EMPATHIE study (2014).
We recognise that no approach on its own will be capable of addressing all aspects of empowerment, in all different contexts as empowerment is complex and influenced by many factors. The priority areas and actions in this Roadmap are highly complementary and can point towards multiple paths towards the goal of achieving European health systems that are high-quality, patient centred, participatory and sustainable.
In many cases there is a need for further research to understand the state-of-the-art and identify gaps. In some cases, there is an established EU framework for a given policy area. In other cases, there is not. This means that stakeholders can take action to shape the EU agenda from the bottom up. However, we also believe that top-down policies support is needed – both from the European Commission and the Parliament, and from national governments.
The Roadmap is intended to provide direction and inspiration for action. We have not indicated any specific timelines, as we wish to take a long-term view. We also have not provided specific instructions on “who” should take which action: we believe that the engagement of a wide range of stakeholders – patients, policymakers, different health/social care professionals, and sometimes commercial actors – is required in each area. There is a need to develop a new, much more collaborative mind-set to cut through existing “silos” and develop solutions together – and always with patients and their representative organisations as partners.
More info: policy@eu-patient.eu.
The Roadmap is also available here.