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GROWING THE RESPONSIBLE USE OF MEDICINES

COLLABORATIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS

INVOLVING PATIENTS

If we are to achieve responsible use of medicines, patients

need to be on board. FIP has continued to work with patient

groups, particularly through the International Alliance of

Patients Organizations (IAPO). The immediate past-chair of

IAPO, was invited to speak at our Dublin congress, but FIP

officers have also reached out to patient groups through

taking part in their events. In December, for example, FIP

vice- president Prafull Sheth attended an IAPO event Meeting

patients needs in South-East Asia effective strategies for

improving patient safety .

WORKING TOWARDS INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

The concept of responsible medicines use is wider than rational use.

It requires that all actors are engaged. In May 2013, FIP joined with

other leading health professions, under the umbrella of the World

Health Professions Alliance, to call for a new emphasis on colla bo-

rative practice through a major new statement. This stresses that

effective collaboration between different professions can improve

services, increase user involvement in decisions, improve use of

resources, reduce disability and raise job satisfaction of health

professionals.

The statement, launched during the 66th World Health Assembly,

called on governments to fund structures that support

interprofessional collaborative practice.

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LEADING COLLABORATION ON ETHICS

Ensuring medicines are used in the right way is an

ethical obligation. Research and innovation must also

be ethical and transparent. In January 2014, FIP, together

with four global healthcare organisations, signed a

Consensus framework for ethical collaboration between

patients organisations, healthcare professionals and the

pharmaceutical industry.

FIP s special interest groups (SIGs) also had important

discussions about ethics. In July 2013, for example,

Hitoshi Sasaki, chair of the SIG on trans lational research

and individualised medicines, organised an international

workshop, held in Japan, focusing on the ethics of

health research and translational research.

VIGNETTES 2013/14