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2nd Patient Empowerment World Congress 2026 Europe

“Part of Patient Centricity & Collaboration Series”

“Connecting Patients, Clinicians, Industry and Policymakers to Transform Healthcare Through Partnership, Innovation and Empowerment.”

Holiday Inn London - Kensington High St. by IHG, London, United Kingdom

Wednesday 14th - Thursday 15th October 2026

FACILITATE LIVE is very pleased to welcome you to our upcoming 2nd PATIENT EMPOWERMENT World Congress 2026 Europe. The congress focuses on “Connecting  Patients, Clinicians, Industry and Policymakers to Transform Healthcare Through Partnership, Innovation and Empowerment.”

Patient empowerment refers to enabling individuals to gain the knowledge, skills, confidence, and authority to actively participate in decisions about their health and healthcare. Rather than being passive recipients of care, empowered patients become informed partners who collaborate with healthcare professionals to manage their conditions, make treatment decisions, and improve their overall well-being.

Traditionally, healthcare systems followed a paternalistic model in which clinicians made most decisions for patients. Today, however, there is growing recognition that patients who understand their health conditions and engage in their care are more likely to achieve better outcomes. Patient empowerment, therefore, shifts healthcare toward shared decision-making, transparency, and respect for patient preferences, values, and lived experiences. A fundamental aspect of patient empowerment is access to clear and reliable information. Patients need understandable guidance about their diagnoses, treatment options, potential risks, and expected outcomes. Health literacy plays a crucial role in enabling individuals to interpret this information and navigate complex healthcare systems. When patients are well informed, they can make better decisions and participate more confidently in discussions about their care.

Involving patients in treatment decisions and ensuring they understand their care plans significantly improves adherence to prescribed medications and therapies. By combining shared decision-making with comprehensive patient education, individuals can choose treatments that align with their needs and lifestyles. This collaborative approach leads to improved health outcomes, quicker recovery, reduced anxiety, and a greater likelihood that patients will adopt healthier lifestyles and actively monitor their conditions.

Patient empowerment is particularly important for people living with chronic diseases, where self management plays a key role. Empowered patients are more likely to monitor symptoms, manage medications effectively, and take preventive actions to maintain their health. Healthcare providers support this process through education, coaching, and digital tools that help patients track and manage their well-being.

When patients feel heard and respected, it strengthens their relationship with healthcare providers and encourages open communication and trust. This engagement is also essential for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. Patient insights help identify unmet needs, improve the design of clinical trials, and guide the development of therapies and support programs that better reflect real patient experiences. Patients who are actively involved in research are also more likely to participate in clinical studies and remain engaged throughout the process.

Patient empowerment also supports ethical principles by respecting patient autonomy and enabling individuals to make informed decisions about their health. By ensuring that all patients have access to information, resources, and support, empowerment can also help address health disparities and promote greater health equity.

The two-day Congress will bring together stakeholders across healthcare, pharmaceuticals, patient advocacy, research, and policy, as well as patients and caregivers themselves. It will explore the growing importance of patient empowerment and its implications for both patients and the life sciences industry, with the goal of fostering meaningful dialogue, collaboration, and more patient-centered healthcare systems.

We look forward to meeting you at the Congress! 

Sincerely yours,

Jocelyn Raguindin
Conference Director
Facilitate Live

GAIN LATEST INSIGHTS ON:

By the end of this two-day congress, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the principles of patient empowerment and patient-centred care and their impact on improving health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and healthcare system efficiency.
  • Apply strategies to improve health literacy and patient education, enabling patients to better understand their conditions, treatment options, and care pathways.
  • Integrate shared decision-making approaches into clinical and care practices to ensure treatment plans align with patient values, preferences, and lifestyles.
  • Identify effective methods to support patient self- management, particularly for individuals living with chronic diseases, through education, digital tools, and care coordination.
  • Assess how patient insights and lived experiences can inform healthcare service design, improving care pathways and overall patient experience.
  • Evaluate the role of patient advocacy groups and community organisations in advancing patient engagement, policy influence, and healthcare innovation.
  • Examine strategies for incorporating patient perspectives into clinical trial design and drug development, improving recruitment, retention, and research relevance.
  • Explore the use of real-world evidence and patient- reported outcomes to better understand treatment effectiveness and inform healthcare decision-making.
  • Analyse how digital health technologies—such as telehealth, wearables, and patient portals can empower patients to manage their health and improve access to care.
  • Recognise opportunities for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries to build meaningful partnerships with patients, enhancing trust, transparency, and collaboration.
  • Identify best practices for developing patient support programmes that improve medication adherence, disease management, and quality of life.
  • Assess approaches for addressing health inequalities and improving access to care, ensuring patient empowerment strategies are inclusive and equitable.
  • Develop cross sector collaboration strategies among healthcare providers, industry, researchers, policymakers, and patient organisations to advance sustainable patient-centred healthcare systems.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This Congress is beneficial to pharmaceutical, biotech companies, researchers, physicians, patient advocacy groups, regulatory agencies, technology and healthcare companies.

Network with Presidents, Heads/Chiefs, VPs, Directors, and Leaders in the area of:

  • Patients
  • Patient Engagement
  • Patient Services
  • Engagement Strategy
  • R&D Patient Engagement
  • Medical Affairs
  • Commercialisation
  • Marketing
  • Regulatory Affairs and Policy
  • Patient Support
  • RWE, and Data Management
  • Quality and Compliance
  • Clinical Development and Operations
  • Programme Management
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Patient Access
  • Clinical Research
  • Digital Accelerator
  • Patient Engagement & Portfolio Strategy
  • Patient Support
  • Strategy & Insights
  • Patient Experience
  • Global Patient Advocacy & Alliances
  • Government Policy and Advocacy
  • Digital Patient Experience Lead
  • Clinical Insights and Experience
  • Head of Strategy, Access Services
  • Site Collaborations and Patient Centricity

Anthony Cunliffe, National Lead Medical Adviser, Macmillan Cancer Support

BUILDING THE FOUNDATION OF PATIENT EMPOWERMENT

  • Shift in Healthcare Systems: Examining the transition from provider-centric to patient-centered models.
  • Patients as Partners: The evolving role of patients in care, research, and innovation.
  • Stakeholder Collaboration: Building trust, transparency, and shared accountability.
  • Empowerment Drivers: The impact of digital health, policy, and education on patient empowerment.

Moderator:

Sarah Contiero, Associate Director, Spectrum Science

Panelists:

Dan Farrow, Head of Community Engagement, Breakthrough T1D

Sailaja Maganti, Founder, Prurigo Nodularis International Charity

Kayuri Odedra, Associate Director, Patient Inclusion, EMEA Region, Abbvie

Hamda Munawar, Senior Patient Advocacy Manager, Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH

  • What’s the benefit of using health data for research?
  • How can the pharmaceutical industry and patients work together to give people access to clear and reliable information about use of health data?
  • What safeguards matter to patients?

Janet Messer, Director of Health Data and Digital Policy, ABPI
Caleb Meath, Innovation and Research Policy Manager, ABPI

  • Benchmarking report on quantifying what is unquantifiable – patient centricity
  • Sharing best practices of patient empowerment and engagement across pharma
  • How digital channels, platforms impact shared decision making and ultimately improve lived experiences?

Gabor Purman, Patient Advocacy Director, Kyowa Kirin

  • The challenge: Entering the market as an unknown company in a space where a huge amount of information was available, yet unmet needs still existed; why empowerment starts with involving people living with a condition in defining the problem, not just validating the solution.
  • Starting with Patients: How patients, caregivers and clinicians collectively defined the problem we needed to solve in prostate cancer.
  • Tackling the Unmentionables: The role of lived experience in identifying under-discussed topics such as intimacy and incontinence.
  • From insight to action: Turning lived experience into practical tools that help people feel informed, confident and able to participate in shared decision-making.
  • What we learned: What we’ve learned about creating programmes that empower people to take action, advocate for themselves and personalise their care, and how that is shaping the next phase of the programme. We also faced challenges finding representation across different ethnicities and cultures in Series 1, which became the top focus for Series 2.

Rosanna Forrest, Director, Patient Engagement, Spectrum Science

Nick Johnson, Patient Engagement & Communications Lead, Accord Healthcare

Sanjiv Kanwar, Patient Advocate

  • Mapping the patient journey: Evaluating the process from initial diagnosis through to long-term care.
  • Identifying unmet needs: Pinpointing specific requirements that are currently not being addressed.
  • Integrating multidisciplinary teams: Coordinating various care teams to ensure a cohesive approach.
  • Redesigning services: Utilizing patient insights to improve and restructure service delivery.

Rebecca Lisle, Head of Patient Advocacy EU/INT, Jazz Pharmaceuticals

PATIENT VOICE IN HEALTHCARE

Gunnar Schroefel, Sr Director & Head of Oncology Patient Advocacy, Daiichi Sankyo Europe & Canada

  • The Journey of a Child who was not supposed to be alive long enough to thrive in society
  • The moment that changed my life forever
  • Creating a movement for patients to gain confidence

Anjana Pindoria, Founder, I am Patient

  • Moving beyond “tick-box” patient engagement to meaningful partnerships
  • Translating patient insights into actionable changes in clinical practice and trials
  • Common gaps between patient input and implementation – and how to close them
  • The role of patient organisations and structured engagement models
  • Building sustainable cross-sector collaboration between patients, industry, and healthcare systems
  • Measuring the impact of patient involvement in real- world settings

Lisbeth Snede, President, PiCC United

  • Exploring how lived experience reveals unmet needs, challenges long held assumptions, and drives meaningful transformation in diagnosis, management,
    and support for VWD patients and their families.
  • How co‐created solutions, from shared decision making tools to redesigned care pathways, can improve outcomes and enhance quality of life.
  • It will also explore how patient involvement can address inequities, particularly for women and people with mild or variable symptoms whose experiences
    are frequently overlooked

Cat Wilder, Chair, VWD Alliance

3:05 pm - AFTERNOON NETWORKING REFRESHMENTS

  • From insight to action: closing the gap
  • Barriers to true patient partnership in pharma
  • Embedding patients across the full lifecycle (R&D to support)
  • Co-creation in practice: from touchpoints to continuity
  • Trust and transparency as enablers of collaboration
  • Measuring impact: from activity to patient value

Joana Pina, Patient Advocate, President, CBP Portugal

  • Advocating for yourself or others is always a hard to navigate
  • Having strong, peer reviewed evidence available during consultations greatly assists the discussion, leading to a shared care plan.
  • Care that feels as if each party is equal is more effective and allows the individual to feel in control.

Carl Lander, Research Director, Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency International Alliance

  • Tabby’s story as a lens: A journey through two rare diagnoses that reveals how the system is not built for rare conditions.
  • Where inequity shows up: Delays, missed opportunities, and fragmented care that create unequal experiences for rare disease families.
  • The burden on families: How parents become coordinators and advocates, often carrying the system when it doesn’t work.
  • Privilege and persistence: Recognising that being able to keep going back and push for answers is a privilege— not all families can, and that deepens inequity.
  • From inequity to change: What needs to improve— earlier recognition, joined-up care, equitable access, and truly listening to lived experience.

Hannah Humphrey, Mum of a Child with 22q11 Deletion & TANGO2, Lived Experience Expert

ENABLING PATIENT EMPOWERMENT

Anthony Cunliffe, National Lead Medical Adviser,
Macmillan Cancer Support

  • Creating a safe environment tailored to the unique challenges of a light sensitive condition (erythropoietic protoporphyria – EPP)
  • Reducing isolation by connecting peers with shared lived experience
  • Building confidence and resilience through practical disease management strategies
  • Enabling experience of the positive physical and emotional benefits of being outdoors in nature

Liz Gill, CEO, The British Porphyria Association

  • Why partnerships matter
  • Partnering with global patient communities
  • Partnering with clinical networks
  • Partnering with industry
  • Empowering through education, support and research
  • Impact: From voice to influence

Sue Burrell, President, GPAC

  • Seen: who is missing from the room, and why under- represented patients, including women across all conditions, remain invisible in how services, research and tools are designed
  • Heard: lived experience vs professional representation and who decides which patient voices count
  • Paid: why unremunerated involvement is a marker of performative engagement, and what fair compensation for patient expertise looks like
  • Protected: empowerment beyond the clinic, including employment rights, financial security and extending the Right to be Forgotten to the workplace
  • The test: practical criteria industry, providers and policymakers can use to tell true empowerment from performance

Atefeh Sadeghi, Founder & President, Women Cancer
Europe

3:05 pm - AFTERNOON NETWORKING REFRESHMENTS

  • Why I’m here
  • Our role as Patient Advocates within research as a partner
  • The Role of Patient Organisations

Dave Chuter, Chair, ICPV

  • The Engagement Gap: When Evidence Isn’t Understandable
  • Plain Language Summaries as a Strategic Engagement Tool
  • Building Trust through Transparency and Accessibility
  • Tackling Health Inequalities and Digital Exclusion
  • Enhancing Research Impact and Real-World Adoption

Karen Rockell, Director, UKODTRN 

  • Why communication gaps persist despite advances in medicine and patient-centred care
  • The “invisible layer” of consultations: what patients hold back and why
  • Power, time, and structure: systemic barriers to meaningful dialogue
  • Real-world patient and clinician perspectives from ongoing research
  • The impact of missed dialogue on trust, adherence, and outcomes
  • Moving beyond “engagement”: practical ways to enable better conversations across healthcare systems
  • What patient advocates, clinicians, and industry can do differently

Cornelia Reyes Acosta, Research Associate in Digital Health, King’s College London  

  • Impact & proof: Where have patient organisations demonstrably changed a policy position, pathway, or decision— what did “impact” look like, and how was it evidenced?
  • Health & Wealth: How to engage patients in industrial and economics policy debates that impact their health?
  • HTA & technical barriers: HTA is often a “technical nightmare” for patient communities—what would it take to make patient experience a first-class input to evidence generation and assessment?
  • Closing the loop: What does a credible “feedback loop” look like—how should institutions and industry show patients exactly what changed (or didn’t) because of their input?
  • Definition of success: If we reconvened in 12 months, what specific changes would prove we’ve moved from “input” to “impact”—fewer delays, less postcode variation, clearer decisions, better equity?

Moderator:

Victoria Hayes, Director, Public Affairs, Kyowa Kirin

Panellist:

Dr Lucy McKay, Chief Executive Officer, Medics for Rare Disease

Lisbeth Snede, President, PiCC United
Tiberius Pereira, Co-founder, Patient Safety Ireland (PFPSI)
 Naho Yamazaki, Deputy Director, Policy and Partnerships, Health Research Authority

Gunnar Schroefel, Sr Director & Head of Oncology Patient Advocacy, Daiichi Sankyo Europe & Canada
Anthony Cunliffe, National Lead Medical Adviser, Macmillan Cancer Support

  Robert Mitchell-Thain, Chief Executive Officer, PBC Foundation

Frida Forya, Senior Quality Solutions Leader – PDQ, Roche

HEALTH EQUITY, ACCESS & PATIENT ADVOCACY

  • Examining the structures necessary to support and mandate patient involvement.
  • Strategies for implementing and expanding these models across diverse healthcare systems.
  • Exploring the vital role of partnerships between different stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem.
  • Ensuring that patient engagement initiatives are accessible and representative of all populations.

Moderator:

Frida Forya, Senior QMS Process Engineer, Roche

Panelists:

Caroline Olshewsky, Chief Executive, Lupus UK

Dave Chuter, Chair, ICPV
Anjana Pindoria, Founder, I am Patient
Gabor Purman, Patient Advocacy Director, Kyowa Kirin

  • Patient information leaflets (PILs) have long been a cornerstone of safe medicine use, yet their impact is increasingly limited in a digital-first world where patients turn to online and social sources for guidance. This presentation will share how the MHRA is working collaboratively with patients, healthcare professionals, charities, and industry to co
    design a user-centred approach to medicine information.
  • Attendees will gain insight into emerging policy thinking in the UK and internationally, and how technological innovation aligned with patient voices, can support safer use of medicines, more informed decision-making and achieve greater accessibility.

Smita Robinson, Head, Product Information Quality Unit, MHRA

  • Brief intro and background

– 20 years experience engaging as a patient representative

– About Patients for Patient Safety Ireland
Foundation – based on:
– WHO
– International Health Literacy Association
– European Patient Forum
– Institute of Health Equity

  • The Patient Empowerment Programme

– Evolution of patient engagement in Ireland
– Vision and objectives
– Enabling Partnerships
– Making change happen
– Challenges
– Progress to date
– Next steps

Tiberius Pereira, Co-founder, Patient Safety Ireland (PFPSI)

  • This session looks at what it really means to do patient engagement differently in ways that reach communities who are too often left out of health research.
  • We will share practical, creative and culturally grounded approaches to gathering genuine insights, sharing outreach, and building trust with underrepresented communities and why these matters for making clinical trials and health research more inclusive and effective.

Sneha Mojumdar, Projects and Partnerships Manager, Egality Health
Alidor Gaspar, Patient advocate, Artist

  • Exploring the engagement continuum, from consultation to co-strategising
  • The principles that underpin true partnership for industry and patient advocates
  • What good patient partnership looks like in practice

Stephen O’Farrell, Executive Director, Patient Engagement, Spectrum Science

Gunnar Schroefel, Sr Director & Head of Oncology Patient Advocacy, Daiichi Sankyo Europe & Canada

Steve Clark, Founder and Patient Advocate, Strive for Five

Hamda Munawar, Senior Patient Advocacy Manager, Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH

  • Lived experience is expertise and patient organisations’ greatest asset.
  • Meaningful engagement in policy, planning, implementation and accountability is essential to improving access: the case for social participation.
  • Access is more than availability: the case for universal health coverage (UHC) and health for all.
  • The role of patient organisations in advancing UHC, and the policy opportunity presented by the 2027 UN High-Level Meeting on UHC.

Dani Mothci, CEO, International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO)

PHARMA & LIFE SCIENCE DRIVING PATIENT-CENTRIC INNOVATION

  • Establishing clear channels of information to foster long-term patient relationships.
  • Implementing robust standards for compliant and patient-centric interaction.
  • Developing proactive strategies to counteract inaccurate health information.
  • Clearly articulating the tangible benefits of pharmaceutical innovation and care.

Steve Clark, Founder and Patient Advocate, Strive for Five

  • What is happening with patient co-authorship
  • Practical examples on how to meaningfully engage
  • What does the future look like?

Sally-Anne Dews, Health Equity Publications SpecialistChief Medical Affairs Office, Pfizer

Trishna Bharadia, MFPM(hon), Patient Advocate, Patient Engagement Expert

  • Patient empowerment often fails because healthcare still measures only a fraction of what drives real-world outcomes
  • Digital health can make the “invisible” visible by capturing behaviour, context, and early signals between visits
  • What needs to change for empowerment to translate into better access and outcomes at scale?

Richard Cassidy, SVP – Rx+ Business Accelerator, Astellas Pharma

  • Opportunities for Servier to build meaningful partnerships with patients through a patient-centric operating model, including Global Patient Advisory Councils
  • How patient insights and lived experiences can inform Servier’s strategic plans

Delphine Nicolas, Head Of Global Patient Affairs – Oncology, Servier

  • Understand how to leverage digital tools and clinical data platforms to improve workflows, maximize trial efficiencies, and enhance outcomes.
  • Discover strategies to align public and private efforts to fund sustainable innovation ecosystems and market access.
  • Acquire techniques for developing user-centric portals and wearable integrations for direct health management and true centricity.
  • Master the ability to establish shared accountability frameworks and metrics (PROMs/PREMs) to track systemic progress and demonstrate therapeutic value

Moderator:

Robert Mitchell-Thain, Chief Executive Officer, PBC Foundation

Panellists:

Joana Pina, Patient Advocate, President, CBP Portugal

Janet Messer, Director of Health Data and Digital Policy, ABPI

Atefeh Sadeghi, Founder & President, Women Cancer Europe

Robert Mitchell-Thain, Chief Executive Officer, PBC Foundation
Frida Forya, Senior Quality Solutions Leader – PDQ, Roche

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