EMPATHiE (Tender Study)

Duration: (December 2013 - September 2014)
Status: Tender Study
Funding programme: Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC), part of the European Commission

What is the project about?

The tender ‘Empowering patients in the management of chronic diseases’ or EMPATHiE aims to deliver a research project to the European Commission to achieve a common understanding of the concept of patient empowerment (PE) and identify good practices, success factors and barriers.

The outcomes of the project will inform the future development of EU policies for patient-centred healthcare, particularly in the context of the EU “reflection process on chronic disease”.

Project Objectives

The project aims to obtain a complete picture of the topic by addressing the following objectives:

• identifying models of best practice for PE;
• analysing the models of PE and identifying the advantages of PE as well as barriers;
• developing a method to validate the transferability of good practices (across disease areas and in different countries’ contexts);
• developing potential scenarios for future European collaboration on PE.

Consortium

The tender consortium is composed of centres of expertise in their fields with extensive experience in patient empowerment, representing health professionals, patients, academics and experts in health education. Each partner has a specific and complementary contribution.

 List of partners:

• FAD / Fundación Avedis Donabedian/ Avedis Donabedian Institute, autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
• CBO / Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Netherlands
• EPF / European Patients’ Forum
• CU / Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
• MU / Masaryk University, Czech Republic
• ENOPE / European Network on Patient Empowerment (represented by the Danish committee For Health Education), Denmark
• RCPsych / Royal College of Psychiatrists, United Kingdom
• CPME / Standing Committee of European Doctors/Comité Permanent des Médecins Européens 

Role of EPF

EPF is the leader partner of Work Package 4: “develop scenarios of future EU collaboration“. The objective is to define possible scenarios for European collaboration on Patient Empowerment – between countries, stakeholders and the European Commission. The potential for collaboration will be considered at two different levels: the political and the technical.

Impact on patient community

Empowerment interventions/practices aim to equip patients (and their informal caregivers whenever appropriate) with the capacity to participate in decisions related to their condition to the extent that they wish to do so; to become “co-managers” of their condition in partnership with health professionals; and to develop self-confidence, self-esteem and coping skills to manage the physical, emotional and social impacts of illness in everyday life.

The outcomes of the project will inform the future development of EU policies for patient-centred healthcare, particularly in the context of the EU “reflection process on chronic disease”.