We're looking for you to share your thoughts on an important initiative! Public and patient engagement plays a critical role in shaping the future of healthcare and research, particularly in preventing chronic diseases. We're excited to introduce you to PROPHET, an EU-funded project focusing on personalized prevention. Personalized prevention tailors healthcare interventions based on individual characteristics, combining factors such as genetics and lifestyle. PROPHET aims to gather insights from patients and citizens like yourself to optimize engagement in personalized prevention. For these reasons, we would like to invite you to participate in an (online) group discussion to share your unique perspective and experience.

It is vital to comprehend and discuss not only what kind of engagement practices exist in Europe but also to understand in what ways and to what extent citizens and patients are currently engaged, how such practices may relate to the concept of empowerment and where we find potential gaps. For instance, this engagement may take place through forums, which require institutional resources and close collaboration with researchers. Other ways of engaging patients and citizens include surveys, which can be made more effective through new digital tools. Your views and experiences regarding how to best engage citizens or patients in developing and implementing personalised prevention approaches help improve current options.

ACN, as a partner in the PROPHET project, invites you to participate in these conversations to share your views, experiences, challenges, and successes in fostering more engagement and empowerment in the realm of personalized prevention for chronic conditions (e.g. cancer, cardiovascular or neurological disorders...).

The (online) discussions last about 1 to 2 hours. They will take place in May 2024 (between the 6^th and the 10^th) to explore views on best practices, barriers, facilitators, and the evaluation of engagement practices in research, clinical care, and governance and education of health care practices.

If you're interested in joining the group discussion, please contact us (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). We especially welcome those who are interested in or have any kind of experience with personalized prevention^*.

Your input will be very helpful to enhance the impact of the PROPHET project and contribute to the ongoing efforts to create inclusive and effective models for public engagement in healthcare decision-making across Europe.

* Personalized prevention is the assessment of health risks for individuals based on their specific background traits, like genetics and lifestyle, to recommend tailored prevention, it’s about understanding each person's genetic predispositions and lifestyle factors to promote a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. You don't need to be an expert in genetics to join the conversation!