BRUSSELS, June 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A specially-convened panel will tackle tough questions on patient engagement (PE) today (Tuesday, 28 June) in front of a live audience at the DIA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Panel - Patient Involvement Today & Tomorrow: What's In It For Patients? - will discuss how diverse stakeholders can apply PE in a meaningful way. Marc Boutin, Chief Executive Officer of the US National Health Council (NHC) and Panel Chair, said, "There is a lot of interest and excitement around patient involvement in health care, but no clear 360-degree view of the landscape. We have brought together experienced stakeholders who will face challenging and topical questions during the session and help us better understand the landscape, identify trends, and explore what the future of PE could look like."

The panelists come from a diverse range of stakeholder groups providing their own unique perspectives and experiences, and are all members of the Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD) coalition. They represent patients (Graeme Johnston), patient advocacy groups (Bettina Ryll, founder, Melanoma Patient Network Europe), the US Food and Drug Administration (Theresa Mullin, Director, Office of Strategic Programs, CDER), the European Medicines Agency (Isabelle Moulon, Head of Patients and Healthcare Professionals Department), and the pharmaceutical industry (Anton Hoos, Head of Medical Affairs, Amgen GmbH, and Lode Dewulf, Vice President and Chief Patient Affairs Officer, UCB).

During the 75-minute Q & A, panel members will face questions from other panel members, invited patient advocates, and received through social media outreach.

"We designed this DIA event to be a truly interactive forum and will be using social media engagement to be as inclusive as possible. Together we will draw a picture of the current PE landscape with the aim of articulating a path forward to achieving high value patient outcomes. It promises to be a dynamic and challenging event, and we are all looking forward to facing some tough questions," said Boutin.

For further information

Contact Ify Sargeant, PFMD Communications Co-ordinator, at ify@thesynergist.org; mobile +44 (0)7796 477123; or visit www.PFMD.org . (Interviews can also be arranged)

Notes for editors

• The DIA 2016 Annual Meeting takes place from June 26-30, 2016. in Philadelphia and is the largest global interdisciplinary gathering of life sciences professionals (http://www.diaglobal.org/flagship/dia-2016 ).

• The DIA panel, Patient Involvement Today & Tomorrow: What's In It For Patients? takes place on Tuesday, 28 June, from 14.00-15.15hrs Eastern time. Session #243 in room 204C, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia. More details are available at: http://sched.co/61Q4 .  

• The Patient Focused Medicines Development (PFMD) group, established in 2015, is an open, independent, multinational coalition based on expertise and commitment to develop and drive implementation of patient engagement (PE). It is a non-profit collaboration whose activities are funded by member organizations.

• PFMD is a truly global partnership and a collaborative platform that synergizes efforts to integrate the voice of the patient across the lifecycle of medicines development. Its vision is to improve global health by co-designing the future of health care for patients with patients. PFMD aims to transform the way in which health ecosystem stakeholders understand, engage, and partner with patients globally in the design and development of research and medicines by focusing on unmet patient needs.

• PFMD has developed an organic and inclusive partnership strategy that encourages evaluation and feedback, review, and ongoing refinement of their work towards a meta-framework. Visit www.PFMD.org for more information.

SOURCE PFMD