Public health is not just about human diseases, healthcare services or cross-border pandemics. Most of all, health is about people. Giving wider attention to the individual also fits perfectly with the European 2020 vision of ‘smart, inclusive and sustainable’ growth for a healthier EU, as highlighted at a recent meeting on ‘health literacy in Europe’ organised by STOA – European Parliament Science and Technology Options Assessment – on 1 July 2015.
People are used to putting emphasis on public policies and how health should be of primary concern for public institutions, policy makers and so forth.
Policy makers, however, generally fail to acknowledge that health concerns should primarily involve citizens and that they should take a person and family-centred approach. Putting the patient at the centre is important for delivering effective health care services and to avoid the provision of only superficial medical services.
At the event, Kaisa Immonen-Charalambous, European Patient’s Forum emphasised that public health is currently taking a “4Ps” approach: promotion, prevention, protection and participation. However, simply stressing that the EU work plan for public health needs to be complemented by actions for the empowerment of citizens is not sufficient per se to deliver effective and sustainable results. Indeed, there is still an important variable to account for, namely health literacy.
Under a widely accepted definition developed by the HLS-EU consortium, health literacy refers to the capacity to make sound decisions for health in the context of everyday life, at home, in the community, in the workplace, in the healthcare system, in the market place and in the political arena. In simple terms, literacy represents one of the main determinants influencing access to healthcare services, individuals’ behaviours and lifestyles. It is a fact that health literate people have a better understanding of their health and the pursuit of healthier lifestyles. This can have a positive effect on costs for public services. It is therefore vital to establish a culture of learning and patient safety, putting literacy at the core of the learning environment, as stated in the Luxemburg Declaration on patient safety issued by the EC in 2005; citizens are the central subjects of healthcare.
Ms Immonen-Charalambous explained how health literacy has only recently become a mainstream concept for European policy makers and legislating on the issue is still a very complex task. Roberto Bertolini, WHO added that there is not yet a comprehensive and coordinated plan at EU level to create and support centres of excellence for health literacy.
That being said, there are plenty of opportunities to empower citizens and institutions in this field. Ines Madruga, PGEU in her presentation of the mobile app “Medicamento Accesible Plus” pointed out that technological advancements may play a significant role in the improvement of health literacy. Innovative technological solutions, such as e-Health tools, mobile apps, distance care, and e-banking are useful developments that can help dealing with resources constraints, information gathering, design interventions, research, disease prevention, health monitoring, data sharing, policy coordination and much more.
As Marc Lange, Secretary General of EHTEL pointed out health technology is not just about gadgets, but represents a concrete possibility for users and policy makers to anticipate long terms impacts on health, moving healthcare from the hospital area to the community. Scientific progress is rapidly driving the world and technology has become an incubator for development, especially in public health.
A collaborative network to support and foster better understanding of health literacy has already been formed by the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), the European Patient’s Forum (EPF), Maastricht University and other partners. However, the capacity to make sound decisions in public health depends much on the ability to expand the strategic and collaborative framework.
