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Partnerships

EPF strongly believes in forging alliances and good working relations with European organisations who share a common agenda.

Cooperation with Health Stakeholders

  • We established a good relationship with our sister organisation at the international level,  the International Alliance of Patients' Organizations (IAPO) in line with our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2007 and collaborated as a speaker at their Global Patients’ Congress and on various policy themes such as pharmacovigilance, anti-counterfeiting, clinical trials, etc.
  • Together with a number of other organisations, EPF is part of the Integrated Care Alliance, that aims at accelerating the transition towards Integrated Care. The ICA is committed to strengthening and expanding integrated, sustainable health and care services across the EU Member States. The multi-stakeholder experts are committed to sharing their experience and expertise while providing direction, advice and guidance for establishing and consolidating integrated care schemes.  
  • We jointly campaigned with the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) on the Public Health Programme, in the framework of the Lithuanian EU Presidency Conference on the Sustainability of Health Systems and in a common action in 2014 aimed at defining the health portfolio of the European Commission.
  • EPF has been a member of the European Health Policy Forum since 2006. The European Health Policy Forum is composed of key health stakeholders at the EU level to exchange information and give feedback to the Commission on health-related policy.
  • We have interacted with the World Health Organisation – European Regional Office on issues such as patient safety since 2010. On April 2015, EPF contributed a patients’ perspective to WHO statement on the reporting of clinical trial results to the public.
  • We joined the European Network on Patient Empowerment (ENOPE) by signing a MoU with them in 2013.
  • We signed a MoU with the European Society for Quality of Healthcare (ESQH) in 2011.
  • We have worked with the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC).
  • We collaborate closely with the the European association working for patients' carers, EUROCARERS, regularly attending their interest group meetings. EUROCARERS were also part of our advisory board for the Chain of Trust project.
  • We signed a MoU with the Chiropractic Patients' Federation Europe (CPFE) in 2012.

Cooperation with EU institutions and agencies

  • We have worked with the European Commission's Directorate for Health, DG SANTE, as a member of the Working Group on Patient Safety and Quality of Care since 2006 to provide advice to the Council Working Party on Public Health Issues in developing the EU patient safety and quality agenda. We are also participating in the Working Group on Health Workforce and represented in the Medical Devices Expert Group.
  • We were involved with European Commission's Directorate for Enterprise and Industry, DG GROWTH, as member from 2010 to 2013 in the European Commission’s Platform on Access to Medicines [1]; we were represented in the Steering Group, as well as in the six working groups through representatives of our member organisations.
  • We are also represented in the DG GROWTH Platform on Ethics and Transparency and have contributed towards the new Guiding Principles for working with the pharmaceutical industry and health professionals.
  • EPF initiated collaboration with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in 2011 as a member of their platform to complement our work on anti-discrimination.
  • EPF was represented at the High-Level Steering Group of the European Innovation Partnership.
  • We were a member of the EU Task Force of High-Level Advisors on eHealth to prepare a specific report on the future of eHealth.
  • Our close involvement with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) includes our representation in the Patient and Consumer Working Party since 2006 to provide recommendations to EMA human scientific committees on all matters of interest to patients in relation to medicinal products. EPF was also member of the EMA’s Working Group on Clinical Trials in Third Countries and EMA’s Working Group on the EuraVigilance Medicines Safety Database in 2011-2012. In 2013-2014, patients were also represented on the Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) for the first time. 
  • We built alliances with major pan-European networks of regions and health authorities such as the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the European Network of Regional and Local Health Authorities (EUREGHA) and Health ClusterNET.

Cooperation with Health Professionals

  • The respective boards of the European Standing Committee of Doctors (CPME) and EPF met in September 2007 to explore how we could best work together in relation to the new patient – doctor relationship. We agreed on a set of joint principles and now work closely on key EU policy issues-particularly on issues around health literacy. We are also involved together in key high-level EU health committees and working parties and were associate partners in the EUNETPAS, Chain of Trust projects.
  • EPF also cooperates with the Royal College of Physicians in relation to their ongoing work in patient involvement and health literacy and their European activities.
  • In 2008, EPF agreed with the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) to have an ongoing dialogue on the issues linked to pharmacists’ role in the provision of patient-centred healthcare. We had a joint action on medicine adherence in 2011.
  • EPF has worked together with the European Federation of Nurses (EFN) since 2011 to look at how both organisations can support their national members in obtaining European Structural Fund monies to translate EU health policies and orientations into practice.
  • We are working in partnership with the European Health Management Association (EHMA), the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation (HOPE), and the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS).

We are also involved, together with some of these health stakeholders, in key high-level EU health committees and working parties and as associate partners in European projects such as the EUNETPAS, Chain of Trust,  joint action PaSQ, joint action on chronic diseases and the EMPATHiE tender on patient empowerment.

Cooperation with industry

  • EPF has been a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Think-Tank since 2003. This quarterly event is the occasion for patient organisations and the pharmaceutical industry to engage in dialogue on EU issues in the area of health and innovative medical research.
  • EPF has also continued the bi-annual Patient-Medtech dialogue established in      partnership with the medical devices industry association, EUCOMED, in 2011. From this meeting of patients’ association representatives and the MedTech industry emerged the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2013, which was later replaced by the MoU 2014, and a patient-centered checklist for companies to better involve patients in the medical devices sector.
  • EPF also liaises with the European Diagnostic Manufacturers Association (EDMA).
  • We established a regular information exchange with GSMA-Europe, the European interest group of the international wireless operators association.
  • We strengthened our work with COCIR, the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry.