Picker Institute response to EC patient information

Picker Institute response to EC patient information " Picker Institute Europe welcomes the report’s recognition of the
increasingly active role of patients in seeking information in order to
make decisions about their health, care and treatment; and the report’s
support for a ‘partnership’ model of the relationship between patients
and health professionals
• However, Picker Institute Europe questions the report’s assumption that
the answer to patients’ information needs lies with industry, and its
conclusion that the pharmaceutical industry should be allowed a greater
role in the provision of information to patients
• The principles to be applied to patient information policy are that
patients need high quality, objective, reliable and evidence-based
information, including information about all the alternative treatments
available and their benefits and harms, in order to make decisions with
their health professionals
• Picker Institute Europe calls upon the directorates-general for enterprise
and industry and for health and consumer protection to take account of
all the existing evidence on patients’ information needs and, if
necessary, to commission a new review of that evidence, in order to
ascertain what kinds of information patients most need and want, paying
particular attention to issues of trust and reliability of information; what
are the barriers to availability and access; what are the appropriate
solutions to overcome those barriers; and what should be the priority
actions at European level"