Diabetes: a case study on strengthening health care for people with chronic diseases. Preface

Fostering the Quality of Care for People with Chronic Diseases, from Theory to Practice: The Development of Good Practices in Disease Prevention and Care in JA CHRODIS PLUS Using JA CHRODIS Recommendations and Quality Criteria

In the frame of joint action in chronic diseases (JA CHRODIS), an extensive process at the European Union level was carried out to identify a core set of quality criteria and to formulate recommendations that improved prevention, early detection, and quality of care for people with chronic diseases. Diabetes was used as a model disease. The core set of quality criteria may be applied to develop and improve practices, programs, strategies, and policies in various domains (e.g., prevention, care, health promotion, education, and training). The quality criteria are general enough to be applied in countries with different political, administrative, social, and health care organizations. Moreover, they can be applied to a number of other chronic diseases. JA CHRODIS recommendations and quality criteria are being tested in a series of pilot actions within the JA CHRODIS PLUS. A total of 15 partners representing nine European countries worked together to implement pilot actions and generate practical lessons that could contribute to the further uptake and use of JA CHRODIS recommendations. Special emphasis is given to meaningful patient involvement in co-designing the pilot actions and to the sustainability and scalability of the pilot actions. These insights were found to be at the core of the learning from pilot actions to foster high quality care for people with chronic diseases.

The burden of chronic diseases across Europe: what policies and programs to address diabetes? A SWOT analysis

BACKGROUND

Promoting the well-being at all ages and reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is a major target of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the frame of the JA-CHRODIS, a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis was conducted to provide different countries' insights on what makes a policy/programme addressing NCDs applicable, sustainable and effective, with a focus on diabetes.

METHODS

A qualitative study has been performed using a SWOT analysis on policies/programmes at the national/federal or subnational level.

RESULTS

By March 2016, 14 SWOTs were conducted involving 11 European countries and 57 stakeholders and Ministries of Health, reporting and analysing a total of 44 policies. The main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats have been outlined as well as and the main areas for governance improvement. A binding trans-sectoral approach is necessary to tackle the underlying risk factors of inequalities. The culture of disease prevention and health promotion is still low while the biomedical paradigm prevails. A systematic gender perspective is still missing. Sharing and exchange of best practices, as sponsored by the European Commission, is acting as a motivator.

CONCLUSION

The SWOT analyses draw an overall picture of the complexity of designing and implementing good policies and programmes that are tailored to local needs. These results may apply to any context and can be used by decision-makers, managers, professionals and other stakeholders to focus on key issues, recognising areas for attention.