Bettina Ryll

Dr. Bettina Ryll is Founder of the Melanoma Patient Network Europe and the current chair of the ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group (PAWG).

After losing her husband to melanoma, she founded the Melanoma Patient Network Europe and developed a special interest in patient-centric clinical research, in particular, innovative trial designs and novel drug development concepts, such as MAPPS (medicines' adaptive pathways to patients), previously known as Adaptive Licensing. Lately, her focus has moved to sustainable healthcare models ensuring access to innovative therapies for cancer patients and incentives for sustainable innovation.

Dr. Ryll is involved in numerous initiatives promoting evidence-based advocacy. She is fascinated by the enormous potential and capacity of patient networks to both educate and support patients as well as to capture data at the primary data source – the patients themselves – and to generate evidence at a granular level non-accessible to outsiders.

Since 2015, Dr. Ryll has chaired the ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group, the first time this position has been held by a non-oncologist. The PAWG is responsible for the Patient Advocacy Track at the annual ESMO meeting, organises workshops of interest to the wider advocacy and medical community and has an advisory function for ESMO activities. She has also been member of the ESMO Quality of Care Task Force since 2015.

Dr. Ryll holds a medical degree from the Free University of Berlin, Germany and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from University College London, UK.