COMPAR-EU has provided key resources for supporting self-management: a taxonomy of interventions, core outcome sets for the four chronic conditions built together with patients and providers; reviews and analyses of more than 1600 randomized control trials allowing comparison of the different self-management components effectiveness; cost effectiveness analyses and studies on the influence of context in developing self-management interventions (SMIs).
This information is highly valuable for patients, professionals, guideline developers, researchers, and policymakers as well as for industries developing IT support systems, pharma and insurance companies. All this information has been reported in an interactive platform which includes decision aids for patients and providers, evidence to decision frameworks, summary of findings tables and recommendations per disease. Lay person summaries are included in the platform.
We are aware that our results can make an important contribution in bridging the gap between knowledge and practice, summarising what is currently available and developing further knowledge and support to the field.
Our mission: help stakeholder’s decision-making
To continue the COMPARE-EU efforts after the project termination in December, we launched Self-Management Europe. This is the not-for-profit European Research and Innovation Centre conceived of as a partnership of organisations working on patient empowerment and self-management. The project is a joint venture initiative led by the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (Nivel), OptiMedis, the Avedis Donabedian Research Institute (FAD and the European Patients’ Forum (EPF). It works in collaboration as an affiliate member of the other COMPAR-EU partners.
Its mission is to help stakeholder’s decision-making by providing, creating, and disseminating new and innovative knowledge for better self-management and patient empowerment with a special emphasis on chronic conditions. Its main objectives are:
- Providing updated (scientific) knowledge on patient empowerment and self-management.
- Promoting research and generating new knowledge on how to improve self-management with special emphasis on vulnerable people and chronic conditions.
We aim to build capacity for research, policy and interventions through workshops, webinars, seminars, and knowledge exchange and help to set strategic directions in European research and policy on self-management, empowerment and chronic disease and create opportunities for innovation and transfer of self-management research for the mHealth application.
Self-Management Europe Alerts
Our first initiative has been to produce Self-Management Europe Alerts providing practical recommendations on how to implement practices that enhance self-management and patient empowerment. So far, four have been published and are being translated to different EU languages to enhance their impact. We intend to create a network with other interested organisations to continue enhancing self-management and patient empowerment knowledge and implementation.
If you are interested, please contact us at contact@self-management.eu
Rosa Suñol
Rosa Suñol is President of the Board of Trustees at FAD. She holds the Donabedian Research Chair in Quality at the Faculty of Medicine and is also Deputy Editor at the International Journal for Quality in Health Care since 1991. Rosa Sunol has published more than 80 articles and books and has over 25 years of experience in health and social care research.