Europe for Patients is about the benefits and challenges of enhanced patient mobility in Europe. How can benefits be increased? How can the challenges to doing so be addressed?

The project has high policy relevance, addressing a very important and timely issue. It has a high European added value and is appropriately supported by the European Research programme, as this type of research can only be carried out on a European level. It involves a multidisciplinary team of European experts that has extensive experience in the subject area. It is expected to have a major impact on European policies in the area of public health, health systems and social protection.

Policy relevance
The project builds on a process started by the Belgian presidency at the Ghent conference in December 2001, continued by the Spanish presidency in meetings in Malaga and Mahón in February 2002. This led to the establishment in February 2003 of the High Level Reflection Process on Patient Mobility (Download  (PDF, 31 Kb) )

Project implementation
In order to assure continuous policy relevance of the research, the project will be closely coordinated with:

• European Commission services: DG Research, DG SANCO and other services.

• Projects such as HealthBasket and other potentially related initiatives such as Performance Monitoring.

• An Advisory Board, composed by national and regional policy makers and representatives from other stakeholders such as health care providers, professionals and patients, who will guide the project.