CHRODIS+

Project information:

• Duration: September 2017 – November 2020 (36 months)
• Status: running EU Project
• Funding Programme: co-funded by the Health programme of the European Union

What is the project about?

• Europe is paying a heavy price for chronic diseases (CD): it has been estimated that CD cost EU economies 115 billion € or 0.8% of GDP annually; and this figure does not include the additional loss in terms of lower employment rates and productivity of people living with chronic health problems.
• This three-year initiative - Joint Action CHRODIS-PLUS (JA CHRODIS +) aims to support Member States through cross-national initiatives identified in JA-CHRODIS to reduce the burden of CD, while assuring health systems sustainability and responsiveness.

Project‘s Objectives

• CHRODIS-PLUS aims to promote the implementation of policies and practices with demonstrated success in each of the four cornerstones mentioned, in closely monitored implementation experiences that can be validated before scaling them up. For this, a total of 42 beneficiaries representing 20 European countries will collaborate to implement pilots and generate practical lessons that could contribute to the uptake and use of CHRODIS-PLUS results. CHRODIS-PLUS aims to promote the implementation of policies and practices with demonstrated success in each of the four cornerstones mentioned, in closely monitored implementation experiences that can be validated before scaling them up.

Expected outcomes

• The aspiration is a health-promoting Europe, free of preventable CD, premature death and avoidable disability could be possible. Initiatives on CD should build on four cornerstones: health promotion and primary prevention as a way to reduce the burden of CD; patient empowerment; tackling functional decline and quality of life as the main consequences of CD, and making health systems sustainable and responsive to the aging of our populations associated with the epidemiological transition (an increase in incidence of CD and extended life expectancy) whose consequence is an increasing prevalence of CD.

Consortium

• European collaboration led by the Institute of Health Carlos III, Spain that brings together over 40 associated and collaborating partners from e.g. national and regional departments of health and research institutions, representing 20 European countries. The partners will collaborate to implement pilots and generate practical lessons that could contribute to the uptake and use of CHRODIS-PLUS results.

EPF‘s role

• EPF is participating as a partner to provide the patients’ unique perspective and experience in areas such as patient empowerment and patient safety. EPF is part of four work packages – dissemination & communication, piloting of implementation of the Integrated Care Model for multi-morbidity, fostering quality of care of chronic diseases and finally employment and chronic diseases tools development.

Impact on patient community

• The exchange and transfer of good practices will result in improved outcomes of policies, programmes and clinical or public health interventions on chronic conditions.
• The project Consortium believes this initiative will foster greater collaboration to tackle the challenge of CD in Europe. It will also change the way healthcare is delivered as this needs to be addressed in a holistic and integrated way to empower patients, reduce the disease burden and optimise the use of healthcare resources.
• During the 36-month life CHRODIS-PLUS will disseminate its activities and monitor and evaluate them to verify the progress and impact of the action. CHRODIS-PLUS will look for synergies with international/regional/local policy initiatives in CD.