Patient solidarity day reminds of need for patient-centred healthcare
30.10.13
The healthcare challenges faced in Africa are, admittedly, uniquely complex. Being lucky enough to live in Western Europe, some of the hurdles faced in the region are difficult for someone like myself to imagine. Something I take for granted – going to the pharmacy and getting a prescription filled – is a completely different story in rural African communities, for instance, where poor infrastructure can make even delivering medicines to a community a challenge.
It’s a stark reminder of the need for collaboration – among key players in the healthcare industry, governments, and more – to successfully deliver healthcare to patients. Simply manufacturing medicines is not enough; we need to ensure these medicines make it from the manufacturing site to the patient’s bedside. That’s a huge project. EFPIA is examining ways to address such unique challenge through its Global Health Initiatives, which bring together diverse stakeholders to debate and discuss solutions to global health challenges. The first round of debates concluded this year and will be marked by the launch of a final report presenting the conclusions this December.
Meanwhile, many of EFPIA’s member companies have campaigns in place to deliver vaccines and other valuable medicines to under-served areas. In pursuit of improving patient care at all levels, the industry has increasingly looked to such guidelines as the World Health Organization’s assessments of burden of disease in establishing it’s research and development agendas. Organisations like GAVI – the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization – are bringing together pharmaceutical companies with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, and World Bank, to improve immunization access in developing countries. The Innovative Medicines Initiative, a joint undertaking between the European Union and EFPIA, exemplifies the value of public-private partnerships in speeding development of medicines and improving patient access, as it brings diverse stakeholders – researchers, academia, industry, SME’s and more – together to tackle large-scale research projects.
These days, patient-centred healthcare means much more than simply catering to those areas where patients are in need. Patients are playing a bigger role in the actual development of medicines than in the past, for instance by providing real-world data on the effects of medicines and contributing to benefit-risk assessments. The patient’s voice in this process is invaluable – after all, a patient experiencing the direct effects of an illness and a medication will know better than anyone else if the benefits of a medicine are worth the side effects. Patients can also play a bigger role in improving access to medicines than before. We need to recognise that not everyone can afford to pay the same amount for medicines – yet there is no question that everyone should have access to the healthcare they need. Solidarity in support of innovative pricing models that address this discrepancy is a positive step towards ensuring equal healthcare coverage.
Patient Solidarity is an excellent reminder of a very simple fact – the healthcare industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the innovation that drives it all exist for one sole purpose – to improve patient outcomes. Patients now have more agency than ever before in playing a hand in this process. The need for a patient-centred approach should be self-evident – but it’s good to be reminded that, in the end, the many different stakeholders and parties involved in healthcare all have the same goal: ensure the best quality of care for patients.
