International Experience Exchange with Patient Organisations (EPF Youth Group)
Event report by Martin Mastrotto
From the 5th to 7th of March the eternal city of Rome welcomed the 11th edition of the IEEPO congress organised by Roche aiming to encourage exchanges and conversations between Patient Organisations and pharmaceutical companies. As a member of the French association AFA and an advocate for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Martin from the EPF Youth Group, attended this event to represent the interests of IBD patients in France and across Europe.
An open communication for impactful actions
This year’s edition gathered 200 patient representatives from more than 60 countries around the world, covering a large array of pathological fields and conditions. Conversations were lead upon the topic of personalized healthcare, where both pharma and patient representatives reflected on how to put the patient in the middle of his/her healthcare journey. This new state of mind is aiming to change the way we consider the involvement of a patient with a chronic copndition and healthcare providers by going from the statement “finding the right treatment for the patient” to “finding the right treatment with the patient”. As no one has more stake in finding the right treatment than the patient himself, it is vital to put him at the center of every decision-making process. The 3-day event was then rich of innovative projects to deliver quicker diagnosis and efficient follow-up by using simple tools as smartphone apps and global data analysis.
Shape the future of a personalized healthcare system
The central theme around this gathering was to enhance the globalisation of an healthcare policy that would be personalized to fits every patient, by analysing multiple key factors, as the way their living with their condition, their medical background and even their gene pool. All this information could be computed by algorithms and help define a better way to lead pharmaceutical research and match complexe pathologies with existing medicine. By analysing a general scheme of gene mutation, behavioral science and flare/remission cycle, the objective is to better understand how to prevent chronic pathologies to interfere with the patient social and professional life.