On 26 November, EFA participated in the EU Health Policy Platform (HPP) annual stakeholder meeting, at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) offices in Luxembourg. EFA celebrates such opportunities for in- person stakeholder involvement with the institution, since their mandate provides with great opportunities to improve allergy and airways diseases in Europe.
During the meeting, DG SANTE presented the background of the EU HPP platform and invited its Thematic Network leaders to present their draft joint statements to the rest of the platform. We could learn from the following initiatives:
- A Global Contiuum for Health Generations, led by PXL University of Applied sciences and Arts
- Advancing Precision Medicine for Europe’s Cancer Patients with AI-powered Imaging, led by the European Society of Radiology
- Natural Language Processing for Cancer Genomics, led by Robert Koch Institut
- Towards an EU Coordination Plan for the Brain, led by the European Brain Council
What are EFA’s takeaways?
The range of experts and divers participants in the meeting allowed for insightful exchanges and ideas for the future.
Firstly, the discussion showed the impacts of sedentary lifestyle and non-communicable diseases are a public health problem which will continue growing unless a prevention approach is adopted. EFA is a strong supporter for increasing prevention measures and stresses the role the European Commission can play in terms of providing guidelines and investment in health promoting EU-wide prevention measures.
Secondly, the topic of digital health and AI became noticeably a common thread between presentations and discussions. EFA embraces health technological developments and recognises their ability to improve diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases for patients. With the upcoming adoption of the European Health Data Space (EHDS) by the European Council, EFA calls for digitalisation that is patient centric, ensures patients’ safety and protects patients’ health data and privacy.
Finally, the meeting showed that developing and improving health policy requires an open dialogue between all stakeholders, with the HPP being a good tool to progressing this collaboration. Patient involvement in policy development is essential and EFA encourages the Commission to further extend initiatives within the HPP to allergy and lung health.