The Patient Journey: improving quality of life of people living with chronic diseases

Vytenis Andriukaitis is the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety , a position he has held since November 1, 2014. He is actively involved in preventing and addressing chronic disease and made it a European Commission priority. Before that, he has been Vice-President of the World Health Assembly (WHO) in 2014 and Lithuania’s Minister for Health from 2012 to 2014. Andriukaitis has been a Member of the Lithuanian Parliament during six terms from 2008 to 2014 and from 1992 to 2004. During his mandates, he led the Lithuanian delegation to the Convention on the Future of Europe and served as Deputy Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs. He was one of the co-authors of the 1992 Constitution, and a signatory of Lithuania’s independence act. He was also one of the founders of the Lithuanian Social-Democratic party, and in 1990 was elected to the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania, which preceded the Lithuanian Parliament. He also served as President of Lietuvos Socialdemokratų Partija (LSDP), the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania he co-founded in 1989. He graduated from the Kaunas Institute of Medicine and was a practicing surgeon for more than 20 years. He also holds a degree in History from Vilnius University.

Antonella Cardone is the Director of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC). She has over twenty years of international activity in health, social and employment sectors. Prior to ECPC, Antonella was Executive Director of the Fit for Work Global Alliance (FfW GA) since 2013. The FfW GA is a multi-stakeholder coalition, led by The Work Foundation (Lancaster University, UK), which is advocating for change in health and work policy and practice to benefit people with chronic health conditions worldwide. Before joining the FfW GA, Cardone was Director of the Global Smokefree Partnership of the American Cancer Society, leading a movement of over 100 organisations supporting the development of smokefree laws in 40 countries. She has managed over 30 large EU projects involving many organisations across all EU member states, in sectors such as health, employment, social inclusion, human rights, education, training and urban regeneration. Cardone has also led, among others, projects at the World Heart Federation, The International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, and the European League Against Rheumatism.

Marian Harkin is an independent Irish MEP, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group. Harkin was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 . With an interest in social and public health issues, Harkin is Chair and founding member of both the European Parliament’s Carers Interest Group and the Volunteering Interest Group and is also Vice Chair of the Mental Health Group, Epilepsy Support Group, the Brain, Mind and Pain Group. She is a member of the MEP Heart Group, LGBTI Intergroup, and MEPs against Cancer Group, the Intergroup on Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, and the Social Economy Intergroup. She is also a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) Committee where she is currently the shadow rapporteur for the opinion on the European Accessibility Act.

Catherine Hartmann is the Secretary General of the European COPD Coalition (ECC), a pan-European not-for-profit association committed to raising awareness about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD) and its social and economic impacts among European policy makers and stakeholders. Active in the field of European policies for over 15 years, Hartmann has been working for not-for-profit organisations. She directed the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) from 2006 to 2010 and managed the European Cancer Leagues (ECL) from 2004 to 2006. She has worked in particular on enhanced care practice, patient rights, patients and healthcare professionals’ mobility, health determinants, training and specialisation of healthcare professionals, on information to patients, pharmacovigilance and on patient safety. She also works with a wide range of international and European partners as ECC is a member of the European Chronic Disease Alliance, the European Public Health Alliance and of the NCD Alliance. Hartmann holds a Master’s degree in Public Law from the University Paris II.

Agris Koppel is working at the Ministry of Social Affairs of Estonia and has been leading the Department of Health System Development since August 2016. He is an experienced health systems expert in Estonia and he is also the member of three state-owned hospitals in Estonia. From 2007 to 2009, he held the position of National Policy Adviser at the WHO country office in Tallinn, participating in the public health evaluation team and leading the rewriting of HiT (‘Health Systems in Transition’) of Estonia in 2008. Koppel has been actively involved in Estonian health care system development, through coordinating the national Nursing Care Master Plan in 2001-2002, leading some hospitals and projects of nursing homes, and evaluating and developing the primary health care services. He has also conducted different national and international analyses about Estonian and other countries’ health systems. Koppel holds a medical doctor degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu.

Peggy Maguire has been Director General of the European Institute of Women’s Health (Ireland) since February 1996. Maguire has twenty years’ experience working in the health sector at European and national level. As an advocate for a health literate public, she developed Cancom, a cancer communication and information initiative for women and families. Previously, she was Director of development at the National Maternity Hospital from 1992 to 1996 where she initiated the first women’s health survey in Ireland ”Women's Health in Ireland –Attitudes and Behaviour”. She also worked at the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) as Director of the research foundation working with 32 GP faculties to promote and develop the research unit of the ICGP. Maguire has served as a member of many expert groups including the WHO Expert group on a Women’s Health Strategy for Europe, and is currently a member of the European Commission Horizon 2020 Advisory Group on gender and Horizon 2020 Advisory Group for societal challenge 1: Demographic change, health and wellbeing. She was a founding member of the Women's Health Council in Ireland. She is currently board member of the European Public Health Alliance after having been President.

Stefan Schreck has been Head of unit for health programme and chronic diseases in the European Commission’s department for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) since February 2016. From 2011 to 2016, he was Head of the unit for health information in DG SANCO (now DG SANTE), dealing mainly with health information policy, and providing the secretariat for the non-food scientific committees of the European Commission. In 2008, he became Head of unit for health in the executive agency for health and consumers (EAHC), which is responsible for implementing the EU health programme. Between 1997 and 2008, Schreck worked in the public health directorate of the European Commission in Luxemburg, in particular in the areas of communicable diseases, health threats, and substances of human origin.

Donna Walsh has been the Executive Director of the European Federation of Neurological Associations (EFNA) since June 2012. In her role, she oversees EFNA’s work streams in the areas of awareness, empowerment and engagement. This includes EFNA’s Training Initiatives for Neurology Advocates and their Together Under the Umbrella awareness campaign. Walsh represents EFNA externally at the European Brain Council, European Academy of Neurology (Liaison Committee), European Society of Radiology (Patient Advisory Group) and within the Societal Impact of Pain steering committee. In February 2015, EFNA launched the MEP Interest Group on Brain, Mind and Pain, which explores the issues of Stigma, Quality of Life, Patient Involvement and Research. Previously, Walsh worked as Coordinator of the European Headache Alliance (EHA) between 2010 to 2012 and as Information Officer with the Migraine Association of Ireland (MAI) from 2008 to 2012. She also represented MAI at the Neurological Alliance of Ireland. Walsh has a BA in Journalism and Communications from the Dublin City University, Ireland.

Mirosław J. Wysocki has been Director of the National Institute of Public Health – NIH since 2010, after having been Acting Director for three years. Wysocki represented Poland at WHO World Health Assemblies, Executive Boards and Regional Committees and was a Member of the WHO/EURO Standing Committee from 2010 to 2013. He was also a member of the Independent Expert Group of the European Commission’s department for Research and Innovations on the priority public health research in HORIZON 2020 for two years. In 2005, Wysocki took part in the WHO’s 2-month “Tsunami Mission” in the countries of South-East Asia. From 1988 to 2000, Wysocki was Regional Advisor (P5), Health Situation & Trend Assessment at the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office and worked at the WHO’s headquarters. He is the coordinator of international epidemiological studies of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs - COPDs, diabetes, rheumatic diseases) and the author and co-author of some 160 publications and chapters on epidemiology of NCDs and public health. Wysocki is professor of medicine. He graduated with a degree in medicine from Warsaw Medical University and has specialization degrees in epidemiology, internal medicine and public health.