EUHA was presented by Emeritus Professor Jan Hazelzet (former LIVE WG coordinator) as an example of how university hospitals from different European countries learn from each other to implement outcomes-based care. In addition, Dr Linetta Koppert, breast cancer surgeon (member of the LIVE WG, Erasmus MC) showcased EUHA’s international role in driving initiatives toward outcome-based care.
Outcomes-based care
Traditional biomarkers don’t measure well patients’ daily living experiences and their quality of life. As a result, healthcare providers are more and more changing their traditional models and shifting towards patient-centred outcomes-based care. This strategy consists of incorporating patient-reported outcomes (PROs), experiences and preferences and measuring what truly matters most to them. Measuring patient-reported outcomes adds real value to care and supports patients in overcoming the burdens of disease. Additionally, outcomes-based care not only improves patient satisfaction and offers personalised care but is also crucial for improving resource allocation, reducing expenses, and preserving the sustainability of healthcare systems.
Given the significance of the subject, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s Health Partners (member of EUHA), organised the online conference “What Matters Most? Delivering patient-centred outcomes-based care” which took place from 19-23 September 2022. The conference explored key topics on outcomes-based care and provided examples and case studies about its implementation.
The online conference brought together significant expertise on outcomes-based healthcare, consisting of amongst others, healthcare consultants, research & medical directors, directors of public health, patients, psychologists, and heads of departments. In a series of fourteen talks, speakers provided the audience with valuable knowledge about the importance of patient-reported outcomes, the delivery of patient-centred care and the IT requirements for outcome measurement and highlighted relevant current initiatives.
Key speakers
Key speakers at the conference were Prof Jan Hazelzet, Emeritus Professor at Erasmus MC, and former coordinator of EUHA’s LIVE working group, who delivered a session on patient-centred outcomes-based healthcare, and Dr Linetta Koppert, Consultant Surgical Oncologist at Erasmus MC, member of EUHA’s LIVE working group, who delivered a session on Successes and lessons learned from her outcomes journey since 2014.
Prof Jan Hazelzet emphasised that different countries might respond differently to the incorporation of Value-Based Healthcare and PROs and highlighted the importance of hospitals learning from one another. As he posed:
“Given the difficulty of implementing patient-centred outcome-based care in different settings, it is important to learn from one another. For instance, the European University Hospital Alliance connects 9 leading university hospitals which are at various stages of implementing this strategy but have worked together to describe a step-by-step blueprint on how to implement patient-centred outcomes-based care ”
Additionally, Dr Linetta Koppert in her session on “International example – Successes and lessons learned from the outcomes journey since 2014” had the chance to showcase EUHA’s contribution to promoting sustainable healthcare systems at a European level that focus on patient outcomes. As she mentioned:
“EUHA advocates within Europe the vision that sustainable healthcare systems should focus on patient outcomes rather than reimbursement”
Leading by Doing – EUHA
Aside from this online conference, EUHA has made a significant contribution to patient-centred outcomes-based care, with some working groups having ongoing initiatives related to the topic. For instance, the Learning In Value working group and the Digital Health and Data Network are working together on benchmarking breast cancer patient outcomes and indicators. To her, this is essential to learn from each other and be able to improve your care.
Additionally, EUHA-driven consortium projects, like the Healthcare Outcomes Observatories (H2O) are contributing to standardising the collection of patient outcomes, experiences and preferences in decisions affecting their health care and providing the appropriate infrastructure and tools to measure these.
We’re proud to see how EUHA members are paving the way toward patient-centred outcomes-driven organisations.
Read more about the Learning in ValuE (LIVE) working group here