European health stakeholders are pleased to announce the publication of the Riga Roadmap, an action plan to make EU health systems sustainable, equitable and participatory. The Roadmap is a result of the Universal Healthcare Conference, held in Riga, 28th-29th June, where the signatories of the Roadmap – the European Generic and Biosimilar medicines Association, EGA; the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, EFPIA; the European Patients’ Forum, EPF; and the European Public Health Alliance, EPHA – joined forces to set out this plan for the future.
Following an event hosted by the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), the European Patient’s Forum (EPF), the European Generic medicines Association (EGA) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) on 29 and 30 June 2015 in Riga, Latvia, a roadmap including objectives and goals has been released.
“Austerity policies are making our health services less sustainable and less accessible, at a time when Europe is facing an explosion of chronic diseases. We have joined together to call on European governments and the EU institutions to take action, particularly on prevention and health promotion. Investment in our health is a win on every level, including growth and jobs.” stated Nina Renshaw, Secretary General, EPHA.
Objectives outlined in the Riga Roadmap and laid out on the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union website include, among others:
– Identify appropriate and smarter ways of preventing ill health and avoidable costs to the system – in both health and economic terms – by promoting health throughout the life course, for instance: by implementing cost-effective preventative measures such as policies to tackle antimicrobial resistance, smoke-free policies; vaccination; and introducing fiscal measures to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods, alcohol and tobacco, whilst making healthier foods more accessible and affordable;
– Create frameworks for meaningful patient involvement across the innovation chain in collaboration with the relevant parts of the EU Commission and stakeholders, from priority-setting and research design to regulatory processes, cost-benefit assessments, pricing and reimbursement, and the re-use/collection of patient data, whilst respecting the need for data protection;
– Include calls for systems and organisational innovation (e.g. integration of care, participatory medicine, patient involvement, culture change) under future EU programmes in order for healthcare to better meet patients’ needs;
– Support the use of real world evidence, to better understand opportunities to advance patient care, while promoting efficient policies that balance support for innovation and the needed uptake for generic and biosimilar medicines to ensure access to medicines for all;
– Implement a regular EU Health literacy survey across all EU Member States to collect comparative data, based on the validated EU Health Literacy Survey (HLS), and invest in health literacy interventions under various financial instruments (e.g. Health Programmes, Structural Funds).
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Discover all the goals and objectives included in the Riga Roadmap by clicking on the button below.
| The Riga Roadmap |
Read the event report to find out all about the event held in June.
| The Riga Roadmap – Event Report |
