Being a prestigious institution and having at the same time a strong scientific, humanitarian but also social character, Prix Galien Awards have decided to launch a new award for Patients’ Associations starting from Prix Galien Greece 2015, the Patient Initiative Award.
The objective of this specific initiative is to enhance the visibility of Patients’ Associations; more than this, to encourage them for more action and thus, assure the best possible access of patients both to information and to healthcare services.

Winner’s Prize & Patients’ Associations Academy*

*TΗΕ STARTING DATE OF GALIEN PATIENTS’ ACADEMY IS TRANSFERRED TO END 2016 DUE TO THE RAPID CHANGES IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH. PARICIPATION ELIGIBILITY IS ALSO OPEN TO BOTH CANDIDATES AND WINNERS OF PRIX GALIEN GREECE 2015

Apart from the Prix Galien medal, the winner shall also receive a prize of 10,000 €, while Prix Galien shall offer further consultancy to the Patients’ Associations that were not awarded, in the context of coaching offered by the Special Patients’ Associations Consultancy Committee established by Prix Galien on a two-year tenure, i.e. until the next Prix Galien Awards event in 2017.
Specifically, the Galien Patients Academy shall be established under the umbrella of Prix Galien Greece and offer workshops every two months addressed to Patients’ Associations through its cooperation with specialist scientists chosen by the Consultancy Committee. The subject matters of the workshops shall be specific, relevant to issues of market access, patient compliance, health economics, digital communications, lobbying, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), clinical investigations etc, depending on the needs of Patients’ Associations and with the essential goal to:

• empower the demands’ and communicational profile of Patients’ Associations
• to assist them in incorporating new members in their associations, and
• to provide the appropriate “tools” in order for them to respond successfully in the role they are called to play in healthcare under present day conditions, so assure more benefits from the state authorities.

GENERAL CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION

Under the slogan «Past to Future», this award shall be bestowed to the patients’ association which in the two-year period of 2012-2014 set into practice an innovative approach /action in at least two of the following fields:

• disease awareness campaign or
• communication campaign or
• program of empowering & training patients or
• methods of approaching new members (patients & volunteers) and maintaining / utilizing those already enrolled, or
• methods of approaching and cooperating with stakeholders (Ministry of Health, the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY), health journalists, scientific societies).

• The majority (51%) of the members of the BoD of the patients’ association must comprise of patients or if in any case the patients cannot represent themselves (minors, mental conditions, Alzheimers etc) of their dully designated representatives.
  The Association’s Charter stating clearly its establishment must be attached.
• Patients’ Associations must be approved by the Ministry of Health or in the process of receiving certification, nevertheless they must be registered in the National Registry of Volunteer Organizations. The relevant certificates must be attached (either scanned or in a pdf file).
• Patients’ Associations must document their activities through press releases or other publications, printed or on-line, on their web pages or in the social media (facebook, Instagram etc). Indicatively, at least two (2) press releases must be attached.
• Patients’ Associations must certify their participation in conferences or patients’ representatives meetings in Greece or abroad with at least one presentation per year. A certificate of participation in at least one conference or one meeting must be attached.
• Final application for candidate patients’ unions must be submitted on line at the Prix Galien Greece website until 30/11/14, in a Word file form. Supplementary material on actions/communication campaings or disease awareness campaigns can be attached as a Powerpoint presentation (pdf file) or video (avi or mpeg file).

SPECIAL PARTICIPATION CRITERIA

The special criteria for participation shall be based on the following axes:

• Information and communication of actions both to the broader public and between the association’s members (website, newsletters, newspaper articles, press releases, publications etc.)
• Awareness and sensitization of the public and the society about the impacts of diseases (disease awareness), the importance of early accurate diagnosis, new treatments and more.
• Support and advocacy in favor of the patients in issues relevant to

a. access to all contemporary treatments and high level healthcare b. reduction of contribution fees in healthcare services (drugs, paraclinical tests etc) c. claiming the right to participate in the planning of health policies and decision making on various issues pertaining to their interests

• Empowerment and training of their members