European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI)
July 2012“Educating patients on therapeutic innovation” is the mission of the European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) – an Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) funded consortium to which EURORDIS is actively contributing. Currently the consortium consists of 29 organisations, and comprises a unique combination of pan-European patient organisations, academic institutions and EFPIA member companies.
This five-year project will develop educational material, training courses and public information to educate patients and the lay public about medicines development processes. It is expected to increase the capacity of patients to be effective advocates and advisors in medicines research, e.g. in clinical trials, with regulatory authorities and in ethics’ committees. The educational resources will be provided in English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian and Italian targeting twelve European countries
EURORDIS will build on its experience and the training materials developed for its Summer School to contribute to this new initiative. More specifically, EURORDIS is involved in the areas of content development for drug safety and risk/benefit assessment of novel and existing medicines as well as the organisation of two face-to-face training sessions, planned for 2015 and 2016.
“The training sessions will follow the format of the EURORDIS Summer School and will allow us to consolidate and expand our capacity-building activities, develop new modules on Pharmacovigilance & Safety as well as increase the number of training days and participants,” says Maria Mavris, Drug Development Director at EURORDIS.
After a successful kick-off meeting in February 2012, EUPATI held its first Workshop in September in Frankfurt, Germany to discuss its strategic approach to patient information and education with experienced patient representatives from different European countries.
EUPATI is currently asking for help to identify existing educational material and training resources on medicines development. If you have come across pre-existing educational material that you found interesting please go to http://www.patientsacademy.eu/suggest
More information on: patientsacademy.eu