PRO-STEP

 

Project Information

Pilot project on Promoting Self-management for Chronic Diseases in the EU.

Duration: 24 months (15 January 2016 - 14 January 2018)
Status: running EPF-led project
Funding programme: European Commission

What is the project about?

PRO-STEP is a pilot project focusing on self-management in chronic conditions. While this shares some similarities with self-care in minor conditions, such as the importance of health literacy, there are important differences as chronic disease requires a long-term approach with emphasis on patient empowerment and appropriate support services.

This project explores the added-value of self-management in chronic diseases, in a context of promotion of self-care in European health systems.

Project’s objectives

The general aim of PRO-STEP is “to put in place a framework for action to enhance self-care at EU level and develop strategies to support the broader implementation of effective self-care” building on findings from other work e.g. EMPATHiE (2014) and PiSCE (2014-).

Specific objectives:

• Identification of good practices
• Analysis of added-value in terms of cost-benefits
• Proposals for possible methods for promoting self-care, taking into account previous and ongoing work in the field
• Identification of elements for scaling-up /transferability of good practices

Expected outcomes

• Production of an extensive literature review
• Analysis of self-management initiatives in a number of disease-areas (including cost-benefit analysis) 
• Platform of Experts in self-care in chronic conditions
• Identification of barriers to promotion of self-care
• Guidelines for policymakers at local/national levels
• Communication tools
• Innovative approaches and policy scenarios for European action
• Conference and extensive dissemination of results 

Consortium

The consortium brings together organisations with a broad range of expertise in fields and backgrounds relevant for self-care in chronic disease. The consortium is led by a patients’ organisation (EPF) and includes representatives of key stakeholders: health education (DCHE), research and implementation (FAD), and health policy (EFHH) as well as translation of knowledge (advisors to the steering committee).

List of participants:

• European Patients’ Forum (EPF)
• Fundacion Avedis Donabedian – Avedis Donabedian Research Institute (FAD), Spain
• Danish Committee for Health Education (DCHE), Denmark
• Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University (iMTA)
• European Health Futures Forum (EHFF), United Kingdom

EPF’s role

EPF is participating as a consortium leader, which will allow that the role of patient involvement from grass roots to the European policy level will be at the centre of the work.

As the leader partner of Work Package1, EPF oversees and coordinates the management of the project; and as the leader partner of Work Package7, it also takes care of external communication and dissemination of the results.

Impact on patient community

The project has significant added value for the European society in general and in particular for people living with one or more long-term conditions. The importance of developing effective strategies for promoting self-care by patients and citizens is growing, as governments seek to develop healthcare systems that guarantee high quality care whilst facing the challenges of ageing populations, increase in chronic diseases and rapid technological development in the context of constrained finances.