Epposi presented its second stage research findings on chronic conditions management and sought open inputs for its new Optimal Chronic Care Model at a conference in Brussels on 22 November, held at the Crowne Plaza Brussels Europa Hotel, which attracted almost 70 representatives of patients’ organisations, academic sciences, medical technology and pharmaceutical industries, payers, healthcare professionals, carers and employers, and observer partners in the EU institutions and national ministries.

Dr Paul Timmers, Director, Directorate H - ICT Addressing Societal Challenges, DG Information Society & Media, and Maria Iglesia-Gomez, Head of Unit, Innovation for Health and Consumers at DG Health and Consumers, the European Commission’s leads on the European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) - and observer members of Epposi’s Advanced Innovation Programme in Chronic Conditions Management - jointly presented the next steps for the EIP in relation to chronic conditions, now that the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) has been approved.

Continuing to work with multi-stakeholder organisations like Epposi, “whose clear work programme, methodologies, benchmarking and standards-setting are extremely important for reliable evidence-gathering, as well as the clear support of national and regional authorities will be key to delivering the implementation phase of the EIP-AHA from 2012”, said Mrs Iglesia-Gomez.

Dr Timmers added that the focus of the implementation phase in relation to Care and Cure and horizontal actions (where Epposi, as an expert think tank, has supported the EIP-AHA Steering Committee to recently deliver its plan and recommendations) would move towards developing pilots at regional level to test and evaluate integrated care models (hospital-community-home settings), analyse and aggregate data and share evidence. The EU’s role has been to facilitate and connect partners (health and social care professionals, public and regional authorities, IT industry, patients’ organisations, civil society etc) and it is now up to them to take the work forward to help deliver improved health outcomes and better use of resources, which will require “certainly an attitude and approach to put patients at the centre”, he said.

Epposi’s Executive Director, Jacqueline Bowman-Busato, welcomed the move towards implementation and outlined where Epposi’s priorities and next steps for the model from 2012 could contribute:

• identifying the most relevant aspects of the model to be piloted at community and regional/municipality level: informal caregivers, employment and working life
• mapping potential stakeholders interested in the implementation process (different pilot groups with different settings)
• establishing benchmarks and monitoring processes.

She commented, “Delivering this programme of research and work in a multi-stakeholder environment has made us critically aware of the need to focus on how to ensure that the community elements can be taken up and really implemented at a community level, both for widely prevalent chronic conditions as well as those more specific patient groups living with a rare chronic condition. The Epposi ethos continues to be to strive to be ahead of the curve in bridging the gap between innovation and improved health outcomes. Epposi very much welcomes the Commission’s comments and looks forward to continuing to contribute in a meaningful, collaborative and practical manner with the EIP and also inputting into the EC Reflection process on the holistic management of chronic conditions over the course of 2012.”

Key research findings and outline model

Dr Andrea Pavlickova, Epposi’s Chronic Conditions Management Programme (AIP-CCM) Researcher, set out the scope of the research. The aim was to build a workable European model for chronic conditions management which took account of the medical, socio-economic and technology dimensions. The model is non-disease-specific but looked at the five most prevalent chronic disease areas in Europe - cardiovascular, neurological, diabetes, musculoskeletal and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases – in order to assess the commonalities and gaps in care.

Ten countries - Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia and Spain – were chosen for detailed study for their geographical and demographic diversity and different health systems to establish the evaluation checklist. This consists of four core domains:

• policy response and public health infrastructure
• patient empowerment
• practice level
• community linkages

and detailed indicators in order to draft a new European chronic care standard.

First simulation test

The conference was also the first public simulation test of the model. All attendees took part using Decide, an EU-funded experiential learning tool to help organisations, individuals and public administrations find consensus and concrete outcomes to interlinked and multilevel challenges.

Using a serious gaming model especially designed for Epposi, teams of up to eight participants, were challenged to address real-life case scenarios illustrating the complexity of chronic conditions management from the perspectives of patients, healthcare professionals and providers, payers and carers, encompassing drug therapies and medical technology, legal and ethical issues to try to forge consensus on practical ways to improve chronic care delivery.

In the afternoon, the conference focused on a wide range of other perspectives which all have a significant bearing on health outcomes and which are addressed by the model:

• Anthropological approaches: Dr Raluca Nagy, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains< Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) - which brings people and their values to the forefront – central to better healthcare delivery
  
• Employment: Stephen Bevan, Fit for Work Europe – how early support for employees after diagnosis of a chronic condition and small changes to the workplace can be crucial to improving job retention rates and minimising the effects of associated psychosocial problems
• Self-managing diabetic Bastian Hauck - an ocean-going sailor on how he monitors and manages his care to live a fully independent life
• Health educator: Ingrid Willaing, Steno Health Promotion Centre – on the importance of getting patients’ input on what information they need and in what form - vital to improving acceptance of health education programmes
• Payers: Jan Van Emelen, Association Internationale de la Mutualité on how insurance models are going to have to change to cope with the rising costs of chronic conditions

The full research findings will be presented in a white paper to be published in the first quarter of 2012.

1. To view the programme and speakers’ biographies, click here
2. The full report of the conference will be published in January 2012.
3. To obtain a copy of the research results, please contact Dr Andrea Pavlickova at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Click here to view the photo gallery

Media contact:

Dee O’Sullivan

Epposi Communications

Mobile: +32 (0)495 893925

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

www.epposi.org

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Notes to Editors

1. Epposi is an independent, not-for-profit, partnership-led and multi-stakeholder think tank based in Brussels, Belgium. Our goal is to work at the "cutting edge" of European health policy-making providing members and the wider public with high-quality independent research, capacity-building, knowledge exchange and dissemination with the aim of bridging the gap between innovation and improved public health outcomes. Epposi enables consensus-driven, equally-weighted outcomes between the different stakeholder groups of its membership: patients' organisations, science and industry. Membership is open to EU-facing umbrella patients' organisations, commercial enterprises and their related trade bodies, research institutes, professional and business federations. Associate membership is open on nomination to NGOs representing a broad range of civil society interests, foundations and international organisations which support the Epposi ethos and are active in human healthcare. www.epposi.org
2. Epposi’s Advanced Innovation Programmes are designed to make a positive contribution to European health policy-making by providing members and the wider public with high quality independent research, capacity-building, knowledge exchange and dissemination with the aim of bridging the gap between innovation and improved public health outcomes. Programme constitution is agreed in accordance with Epposi's equally weighted governance structure between patients’ organisations, science and industry. Representatives from each stakeholder group closely consult with the Secretariat in establishing the strategic direction of the programme and provide expertise to help shape research parameters and event content. Day-to-day management and delivery of the programmes is carried out by Epposi's Brussels secretariat.
3. Epposi is focusing on four key areas in 2011-2013:
   • Chronic Conditions Management (AIP-CCM)
   • Health Technology Assessment (AIP-HTA
   • Innovation in Healthcare (AIP-INNO
   • Rare Diseases (AIP-RD)
4. Following a series of public workshops in 2010 to explore new strategies for the management of chronic conditions, Epposi launched its Advanced Innovation Programme in Chronic Conditions Management (AIP-CCM) at the end of 2010, in collaboration with its multi-stakeholder membership (patients’ organisations, academic sciences and the medtech/pharma industries), representatives of payers, healthcare professionals, carers and employers, and observer partners in the EU institutions and national ministries A list of AIP-CCM programme members and observers can be found on our website
5. Epposi is a formal expert to the Steering Committee of the European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP-AHA) in two key areas: Care and Cure and Horizontal Actions (including indicators, evaluation, funding mechanisms and monitoring of Implementation of the partnership) – the only think tank to be included in the process.
6.  Epposi has been cited by the Belgian Federal Ministry of Health as one of only two (EU) initiatives on chronic care with formal collaboration and knowledge-sharing between Epposi content delivery team and Belgian Federal Ministry of Health.