XII EUROPEAN PATIENTS’ RIGHTS DAY 2018

Therapeutic adherence: value the impact for patients and healthcare system
23 May 2018  

Active Citizenship Network celebrated the 12th European Patients’ Rights Day with a conference, held on the 23rd May 2018 in the European Parliament in Brussels. The event was an occasion to foster communication among different partners/actors in the healing and caring process to improve adherence to treatments and take commitments to increase the respect of patients’ rights and their involvement as fundamental active partners with health professionals in their own care, respecting the fundamental values recognised by the European Charter of Patients’ Rights. 

What are the informative needs and doubts, the unspoken requests and all the elements that somehow can impede the complete adherence to therapies, in particular with regard to chronic conditions? How the key role of civic and patient organisations in empowering patients and their families can be enhanced? 

Starting from concrete experiences, good and bad practices, the conference provided patient associations, health care professionals, scientists, pharmacists, industry and representatives of national and European institutions with the opportunity to work together in identifying the main changes that are necessary to face non-adherence to treatment plans.

Safe and effective treatments for a range of chronic conditions are widely available in Europe. However, the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these treatments depends on therapeutic adherence.

Among patients with chronic illness, approximately 50% do not take medications as prescribed. This high level of non-adherence results in high healthcare costs, lower quality of life and poor health outcomes, which make the phenomenon a major concern for public health. However, these consequences are in many instances preventable.

The key role of civic organisations on the empowerment of patients and their families - which is crucial for adherence to therapies - is often underestimated. Indeed, patients with chronic diseases, in particular, not only have to cope with medical aspects of their condition, but also with caring, social, relational, psychological and financial aspects of their disease, which often have as much weight as the disease itself on the quality of their lives. The added value of civic organisations consists in a global approach to patient empowerment, supporting, informing, educating and training patients to help them deal with the many difficulties of their daily lives. This global approach is necessary to make patients strong enough to collaborate with their physicians in personalising the treatment plan, participating actively in the management of their disease and using healthcare services more effectively

Topics treated

- “Therapeutic adherence and its implications of patients and healthcare systems”

- “Empowering the Patient: dispelling the myths and identifying opportunities”

- “From the therapeutic adherence to the therapeutic alliance: a collaborative approach”

See the Conference Programme and all the PPT presentations

The speakers’ biographies
The final remarks
Photos of the event
The press release - in Portuguese
Some examples of the hundred initiatives all around Europe for the European Patients’Rights Day 2018 

Soon will be available the VIDEO on Therapeutic Adherence to be spread in different Eu laguages

Further Comment

Here you can find a contribution from the Prof. Daniele Levi & Prof Angelo Manenti who couldn’t come to the conference but sent to us their position on the topic.

Therapeutic Adherence and crisis of credibility
New ethics, communication skills and ways to update physicians are needed. Prof. Daniele Levi & Prof Angelo Manenti analyze the phenomena with the approach that the non-adherence to prescriptions can be a major problem linked to a crisis of credibility of sciences. Read more