Today the EFN has attended an event organised by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
In Europe today, almost 10% live with diabetes (amounting to around 60 million people). This number is expected to rise by 22% by 2014, to about 81 million people. Complications related to this disease (people suffering it have a greater risk of suffering heart failure or a stroke) is putting extra pressure on our healthcare systems, particularly in prevention treatment. Diabetes absorbs 9% of total health expenditure in the EU. This pressure is particularly acute following the economic cuts most healthcare systems in Europe have gone through, following the economic crisis of 2008. Which translate in the need of being wiser when it comes to recruiting the workforce (for nurses, the EFN Workforce Matrix 3+1 is a recognised reference).
EFPIA also reminded stakeholders how they have created EFPIA Diabetes Platform, of which their company-members are part of. This platform’s aim is: “To be an active partner in the fight against diabetes, improving the lives of everyone affected by the disease by improving diabetes diagnosis and management by focusing on delivering better healthcare for patients living with diabetes.”
Nurses, as frontline healthcare professionals, are in a key position to fight against diabetes by engaging with patients and empowering them for managing their disease more effectively.
Digitalisation, for example, has great potential for empowering patients and nurses. Hence the EFN is part of two projects that are developing systems for Electronic Health Records that could be used across all EU countries: InteropEHRate and Smart4Health.