Delivering patient value throughout the healthcare system.
Every year ACN selects a theme that is directly linked to some specific patients' rights stated in the European Charter of Patients’ Rights. Instead, this year the upcoming elections have suggested us to turn our attention towards the potential future scenarios, with concerns to health and wellness, that may shape the next European health agenda and so the European patients’ rights as a whole.

Therefore, we have decided to double our efforts: an event that consisted of “a debate on citizens' expectations”, held on April 9th, and another conference, held on April 10th, focused on “Digital Health and Personalized Medicine”.

These two initiatives were linked together by the same message enclosed in the title of the 13th edition of the European Patients’ Rights Day: “Delivering patient value throughout the healthcare system”.

Mariano Votta
Director of Active Citizenship Network

Delivering patient value throughout the healthcare system. A Debate on citizens' expectations. – PUBLIC EVENT

MEP Brando Benifei with Jacki Davis, journalist, and Mariano Votta, Director of Active Citizenship Network.

At the occasion of the XIII European Patients' Rights Day, on the 9th of April 2019, a selection of candidates MEP for the new EU Parliament – representing different Countries and 4 different political Groups - have been invited to discuss different priority topics linked to healthcare policies at EU level, including health promotion & disease prevention, the value of and access to innovation.
The event was kindly co-hosted by MEP Brando Benifei and MEP Elena Gentile from S&D group.

Read more

Click here to read the Conference’s programme
Click here to read the speakers’ biographies
Click here to see the photos of the event
Click here to see the webcast replay of the conference
Click here to read the press release
Click here to see the video interviews

Speakers’ list

Thomas Allvin
Thomas Allvin is Executive Director for Strategy and Healthcare Systems at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), where his responsibilities includes developing EFPIA’s policies for data-driven, outcomes-based and sustainable healthcare systems.

Brando Benifei
Brando Benifei, European Federalist, is one of the youngest MEPs and is from La Spezia, Italy. His main fields of legislative work in the EP are Employment and social affairs, Security and Defence and Foreign affairs.

Ann Marie Borg
Ann Marie Borg currently leads the campaign on addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA). She holds an MSc in European Public Health and an MA in European Public Affairs from Maastricht University.

Jacki Davis
Jacki Davis is a leading commentator and analyst on European Union affairs. She is a very experienced journalist, speaker and moderator of high-level events both in Brussels and in EU national capitals.

Elena Gentile
Elena Gentile successfully graduated in Medicine at the University of Padova in 1978 and worked as paediatrician at the hospital of Cerignola from 1981 to 2005. Ms. Gentile dedicated over 30 years working in regional and local politics.

Arne Gericke
Arne Gericke wants to ensure that educational work (the work of raising children at home) is recognized as gainful employment. In 2014 he was elected for the first time Member of the European Parliament.

George Griffin
Professor George Griffin is emeritus Professor of Infectious Diseases and Medicine. He is a Senior Clinical Physician and has established an internationally renowned research and clinical unit at St George’s University of London.

Afrodite Katsaraki
Afrodite Katsaraki is President of the  League of Neoplasia Patients, Friends and Families, nw Greece “WE ARE TOGETHER”, member of ELLOK and ECPC. She is a Mathematician-Statistician and works as biostatistician in the University Hospital of Ioannina.

Jeroen Lenaers
Jeroen Lenaers was elected in 2014 as a member of the European Parliament for the CDA and joined the European People's Party (EPP). He is a member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.

Andrzej Jan Rys
Dr. Andrzej Ryś is a medical doctor specialised in radiology and public health. He founded in 1991 and ran as Director until 1997 the School of Public Health at the Jagiellonian University. Since 2014 his is the Director responsible for Health Systems, Medical Products and Innovation in DG SANTE.

David B. Vodušek
Dr. David B. Vodušek, Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology, is Emeritus Professor of Neurology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is consultant at the Institute of Clinical Neurophysiology, Division of Neurology, University Medical center Ljubljana.

Mariano Votta
Director of Active Citizenship Network and Responsible for European Affairs at Cittadinanzattiva. He has more than 10 years of experience in the field of the protection of citizens’ rights, stakeholder engagement, communication and civic information.

Ella Weggen
Ella Weggen works as Senior Global Health advocate for Wemos, an independent civil society organization that aims to improve public health worldwide. Wemos analyzes Dutch, European and global policies that affect health, and propose relevant policy changes.

Lieve Wierinck
Lieve Wierinck is a Flemish politician for the liberal Open VLD party. Mrs. Wierinck holds a pharmaceutical degree from the VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). In addition, she obtained a Post-graduate degree of Pharmaceutical management in 2006 at the University of Hasselt.

Please find below some of the clippings and articles about the 13th European Patients’ Rights Day:

» EURONEWS (9 Apr. 2019)

» AÇORIANO ORIENTAL (10 APR. 2019)

» AÇORIANO ORIENTAL (15 APR. 2019)

» MALTA HEALTH NETWORK (18 APR. 2019)

» EFANET (18 APR. 2019)

» THE MALTA INDIPENDENT (19 APR. 2019)

3rd June, Barcelona (Spain): 1st WFIP Forum
In line with its commitment about pain policy and the agreement with WFIP signed in 2018 ACN is glad to support the 1st WFIP Forum “NEW CHALLENGES about INCONTINENCE and CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN. Strategy, advocacy and partnering” that will be held on Monday, 3rd June 2019 at Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona. Read more

12th June, Brussels (Belgium): IMI Stakeholder Forum
On June 12th 2019, ACN will attend the IMI Stakeholder Forum at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. The theme of the 2019 forum is ’Brain health and disease in the digital era - 2020 & beyond’. For this event, IMI will bring together European academics, representatives of multiple industry sectors (pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, digital, imaging), patient groups, clinicians, regulators, legal experts, ethicists and health economists to discuss how we could develop game-changing initiatives in this area. Read more

21st June, Brussels (Belgium): Health First Europe Annual General Assembly
On Friday, 21st June 2019 ACN will participate, as a board member, in the HFE 2019 Annual General Assembly in Brussels. Health First Europe is a non-profit, non-commercial alliance of patients, healthcare workers, academics and healthcare experts and the medical technology industry.

27th June, Brussels (Belgium): EFPIA Annual Conference
On June 27th 2019, ACN will attend the EFPIA 2019 Annual Conference entitled Connecting Healthcare that will bring together senior leaders from the patient community, industry, research, regulatory and healthcare communities to explore how making connections can advance patient care, further medical and regulatory science, improve the management of our healthcare systems as well as support the growth of the European economy. Read more

The Conference “Delivering patient value throughout the healthcare system. A Debate on citizens' expectations.”
has been realized thanks to the support of: