Experts on Treatment Outcomes
If the whole European Union is focusing on patient-centric healthcare system, the patient needs to be heard. It is our duty, as healthcare professionals, to improve healthcare literacy in our communities and cooperate on reducing differences among the EU member states in treatment outcomes. Monitoring treatment outcomes allows better management of health resources and better patient care outcomes. Minister’s conclusion is available here:
There are significant differences in treatment outcomes across EU member states and even within individual states.
Three key words around value-based healthcare are: measure, compare and improve treatment outcomes.
Outcomes should be measured in the same and comparable way which will enable detecting best practice. It would allow us to provide organizational and financial support to member states with lower outcomes to reach the target level and thus, we could reduce the differences between the countries and ensure patient equity.
Antonella Cardone
“Controlling the costs of the health system will contribute to shifting health care from volume-based to value-based healthcare.
Increasing health literacy strengthens the resilience of the individual and the community, helps in reducing health inequalities, and contributes to better health and well-being. Health literacy is crucial for fair, quality and effective patient-centred healthcare.
Patient-centered healthcare would enable better access to health services and improved treatment outcomes, better health literacy and greater health care satisfaction, greater job satisfaction, better service efficiency, and reduction of overall costs.”
Christina Rångemark Åkerman
“Treatment outcomes are actual outcomes of care, including clinical measures such as survival rates and complications during treatment.
The most important steps we can take to improve health care in our countries is to ask patients what is the most important to them and ask them to evaluate the results of their own treatment.
The set of outcomes must be defined according to health status and not according to specialist areas or procedures, and patients must be directly involved in defining outcomes so that the defined outcomes are really the ones that are most important to patients.
A global language for describing health outcomes is being developed, time points and data sources are being defined, as well as a minimum number of initial risk factors for easier purposeful comparison.
Systematic measurement of standard sets of outcomes by healthcare institutions around the world will enable global comparisons of outcomes and help healthcare professionals identify the best outcomes, learn about procedures that contribute to such outcomes, promote the dissemination of best practices and measurably improve outcomes that affect quality of life.”
Marius Geantă
“Technological evolution and data in oncology offer us the chance to identify and collect a vast amount of data on each cancer patient and each type of cancer. One day, the digital image of every cancer patient will be a reality and form the foundation of any truly personalized health care for those patients.
For the first time, I see a collaboration on this topic between the public, the public and the private sector, ie the pharmaceutical industry, in Central and Eastern Europe. It is not easy to start and run such a project because it requires a new way of providing health care. Therefore, the education of all participants in this project must be a priority. This must be the gold standard when it comes to data and technology in oncology, for the benefit of patients.
We will be able to give doctors digital tools, data and technology. The way doctors will accept them will affect cancer patients over the next decade. That is why we need to think in the context of the European Cancer Plan. We need to design MDs’ education differently and adapt curricula to member states.
Citizens and cancer patients need to become aware of the value of data and the importance of donating data to successfully fight cancer.”
Matti Aapro
“In cancer, which today is becoming a chronic disease due to advances in various fields, we must not measure survival alone. We need to consider the quality of life of these patients.”
Nathalie Moll
“The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly shown us the value of access to up-to-date and relevant health data, which is comparable between health systems, regions and countries.
If we cannot even compare mortality rates in the two countries due to different data collection, how can we draw the necessary conclusions about the best way to combat a pandemic? The same is true for the overall health in all areas, and especially for specific health outcomes that are important to people and patients.
By measuring outcomes and costs in a holistic way, for all types of patients, we will be able to identify the health interventions and solutions that will bring the most benefits to patients.
We will be able to identify the investments that bring the most value for money, so we can spend resources on what brings the most benefits to patients, health systems and society.
By shifting resources from low-value to high-value care, we can improve patient outcomes and the sustainability of health systems.”
Nils Wilking
“We need to encourage payers to introduce innovative and timely pricing and cost recovery methods. We need to have a new approach in pricing, valuation and payment.
In addition to national cancer plans, a pan-European one is needed, which will cover all stages from prevention to palliative care and be evidence-based.
We need national cancer population registries with detailed information on diagnosis as well as treatment, as this is the only way to resolve the dilemma between the increasing amount of money needed for oncology care and limited resources.”
Eduard Vrdoljak
“The biggest improvement can be achieved by investing in oncology infrastructure – digitalization of oncology, registries, raw databases based on which we will be able to monitor and report and publish and compare different regions, institutions, doctors, countries and get better results for our patients.
Today, with digitalization and the introduction of IT in medicine, we can diagnose the disease earlier. We have more personalized medicine and we can generate more data and knowledge together. But the future will be much brighter. We will see the patient better. We will be able to better meet the needs of patients and at the same time achieve better outcomes.
I see Europe as a leader in quality control, reporting and monitoring of oncology outcomes in the world.”
