Practical Perspectives Panel: A multi-stakeholder discussion

Dr. Mariam Jashi, Global Board Member of the UNITE Parliamentarians’ Network for Global Health, Secretary General of the Medical Women’s International Association and Chair of the Advisory Board at Tbilisi Medical Academy in Georgia: “When we look at why we have seen success in communicable diseases, we can see that it was due to clear data driven decision-making between multiple stakeholders. In HIV, successful public private partnerships between researchers, academia and manufacturers helped to create solutions and drive down the costs of HIV medicines. All these different factors helped implement a truly integrated and patient centred approach.” 

Dr. Sawsan A. Al Madhi, Advocacy Advisor, CEO & Founder, AlignnEficient Health Consultancies from the United Arab Emirates: “There is a need to change the narrative – we are not spending, we are investing in health. We need to show policymakers Investment showcases that prove how you can reduce future healthcare costs by investing today. We also need to ensure that patient organisations are on the same level as other decision makers. I think we need to add a new P for patients to public private partnerships!”

Dr. Ahmad Morsy, Executive Director of the Higher Committee and National Programme of Women Health in Egypt from Egypt: “The idea of focusing on the patient should be the future especially in policymaking. Digitalisation and use of patient data and accessibility can really help with this. What we need to remember is that it’s the use and curation of data that is important and this can be a challenge especially in developing countries. How data is shown is even more important than how it is collected.”

Konstantina Boumaki, Youth Group member of European Patients’ Forum (EPF) from Greece: “Collaboration and multistakeholder cooperation is the number one priority. We need to focus on shared decision-making between patients and healthcare professionals. When we involve everyone in the discussion, the patient community, healthcare professionals, industry then we can make a decision that benefits everyone.”  

Ranjit Kaur, Consultant of Breast Cancer Welfare Association from Malaysia: “Times have changed. People need to be respected, included and to be active participants in managing their healthcare. They need to be well-informed, and it is essential that they are informed in their own language, to ensure they can understand. This is so important because we know well informed patients cope better and have better outcomes.” 

Maira Caleffi MD PhD, Breast Surgeon and Chief of Breast Center at Hospital Moinhos de Vento Porto Alegre, Volunteer President FEMAMA Brazil, UICC Board of Directors, Geneva from Brazil: “Data is a useful tool that can help us improve our healthcare systems. We need to prioritise the meaningful use of data to help us make the right decisions. The quality of the data we collect is key and collaboration with patient organisations can support knowledge generation around adverse events and clinical outcomes based on their experiences which is invaluable.”

Michael Oberreiter, Head of Global Access, Roche: “It is not possible to deliver better health outcomes without putting the patient front and centre when designing solutions. This needs to start as early as ensuring involvement in clinical trials [design]. It is also crucial that as we seek to humanise healthcare, that we support healthcare systems where care follows the patient, not the patient having to follow care.”