patient rights

[2013 Patients’ Rights Day] Putting patients in the driver’s seat

On the occasion of 2013 Patients’ Rights Day (May 15) EPHA would like to stress that, although much progress has been made, there is still a lot of scope for health systems to benefit from an obvious, yet commonly underutilized and underestimated resource: patients themselves. As patients and consumers of health services - and we all fall into this category throughout our lives - we build up an enormous amount of knowledge over the years that takes various forms. Some individuals, (...)

[eHealth week] eHealth innovation must be driven by full inclusion

13 May, Brussels -The motto of the 2013 eHealth week (13-15 May), which kicks off today, is ‘Delivering Innovative Healthcare and Well-being’. According to the European Commission, eHealth Week aims to encourage continuous investment in health IT in an effort to improve patient care and get a handle on rising medical costs. An integral part of this year’s eHealth Week is the High Level eHealth Conference, organised by the Irish Presidency and the European Commission. (...)

[EPHA’s 20th anniversary series] There is no time like the present

While generally speaking, political change in Brussels tends to be tremendously slow, twenty years are a sufficiently long period of time to have witnessed some crucial changes in the continent’s public health sphere. At the time of EPHA’s inception in 1993, Article 129 of the Maastricht Treaty had just equipped the European Commission with a limited but important legal coordinating role in the field of public health with a focus on prevention, health promotion and protection. (...)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) publishes list of drugs under additional monitoring

As one of the deliverables of the pharmacovigilance legislation, that came into effect in July 2012, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) released an initial list of drugs subject to additional monitoring on 25 April 2013. Please click here to read the full EMA Press Release, which contains additional information. How to identify them? Medicines subject to additional monitoring will have to display an inverted back triangle in their package leaflet and in the information for healthcare (...)

Clinical trials: Exploring the limits of transparency

Glenis Willmott MEP (S&D, UK) took the initiative to bring together experts to discuss the extent to which more transparency could be workable in non-commercial clinical trials. The debate, which took place in the European Parliament on 10 April, served to present the key arguments for and against increased transparency in the context of administrative and data reporting requirements for academic researchers and patient safety. EPHA’s Position on Clinical Trials urges political (...)

[European Network for Workplace Health Promotion] Guide to good practices on chronically ill employees

The European Network for Workplace Health Promotion (ENWHP) has released its European Guide to Good Practice on chronically ill employees. Chronic illness poses a major challenge for public health - it is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Europe, and has a major impact not only on the life expectancy but also in the years of good health lived. In addition, there is reasonable evidence that chronic disease affects earnings, the ability to work, job turnover and disability. (...)

Policy responses to the economic crisis – a shift towards investing in health?

New evidence on access to healthcare: austerity marginalises Europe’s weakest

On 9 April 2013, EPHA member Medecins du Monde European office (MdM) launched a new report that documents the effects of the economic crisis and rising xenophobia on undocumented migrants and other vulnerable groups at risk of exclusion from healthcare systems. Results show that the consequences of austerity measures are particularly strong in Southern Europe where many undocumented migrants are living in an administrative limbo. They are being joined by increasing numbers of European (...)

EPHA Working Group on Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Please find below information on the EPHA Working Group on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), which met for the first time in January 2013. All interested EPHA members are welcome to join the group regardless of whether or not they are actively working on CAM issues. The Working Group on CAM falls under EPHA’s Strategic Aim 2 on Health Systems, which covers issues related to health professionals, health threats and communicable diseases, healthcare services / health (...)

European Medicines Agency Workshop on Medication Errors

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) organised a workshop on Medication Errors on 28 February – 1 March, a timely event given that such incidents are much more frequent across Europe than is commonly known. They are the most common preventable cause of adverse events in medication practice. The workshop was opened by EMA Director Guido Rasi who stated that, although the reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions to the EMA-administered EudraVigilance database forms an integral part (...)