Editorial in Patient: Giving patients’ preferences a voice in medical treatment life cycle
In the latest issue of The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, PREFER researchers write about the importance of this project. The list of authors includes PREFER members from academic institutions and industry, patient organisations and HTA bodies. The list of authors also includes a representative from EMA.
(Image removed) Esther de Bekker-Grob, PREFER
PREFER is a five year project that offers guidance for how and when to include patient preferences in the life-cycle of medical products. According to the authors, the best possible outcome of this work would be a global and harmonized approach to the use of patient preference studies. And for industry, regulatory authorities, HTA bodies, and reimbursement agencies to implement and use the project’s recommendations.
According to Esther de Bekker-Grob (Link removed) , first author, the hope is that the project will contribute to systematic collection of evidence on the preferences patients have about benefits and risks of medical treatments. In a best-case scenario, patient preferences will exist alongside the more traditional measurements like efficacy, safety, adverse events, quality of life, and economics.
Read article in Patient: Esther W. de Bekker-Grob, Conny Berlin, Bennett Levitan, Karim Raza, Kalliopi Christoforidi, Irina Cleemput, Jana Pelouchova, Harald Enzmann, Nigel Cook and Mats G. Hansson, Giving Patients’ Preferences a Voice in Medical Treatment Life Cycle: The PREFER Public–Private Project, First Online: 28 February 2017, DOI: 10.1007/s40271-017-0222-3
By Josepine Fernow & Anne Wolka