The ageing of the population could change the health care model

The advancement of research and the ageing of the population will lead to a new model of health care that will replace a vertical organization, in which the doctor played a paternalistic role, by a collaborative model in which the patient can participate in the management from his own experience.

This is one of the main conclusions of the debate "Informants, patients and health professionals facing the Health of the future", which has brought together representatives of patients, researchers and health professionals at the XIV ANIS Congress and has been moderated by the journalist Carmen Fernández.

With regard to the field of care, Dr. Anna Ochoa de Echagüen, director of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, ​​stressed that the increase in life expectancy "has caused that we have an ageing population with ch ronicpathologies, which implies an intense care burden and rising costs with limited resources".

To face this situation, Vall d'Hebron Hospital has applied a transformation model based on patient flow, safety and knowledge, with the participation not only of professionals and suppliers, but also through the creation of groups of patients.

For her part, Dr. Elena Garralda, director of the Research Unit of Molecular Cancer Therapy of the Oncology Institute of the Vall d'Hebron Hospital, recalled that the research is integrated into the assistance and is part of the day-to-day life of the patients. 

This expert has stated that the future of medical research is oriented towards a collaborative and networked system. According to Dr. Garralda, "we are going towards a more personalized medicine and we are no longer talking about breast cancer or melanoma in general, but about specific mutations". This specificity will require a collaborative system that involves different research centers and will reinforce the presence of reference centers for the treatment of specific pathologies.

This will not mean, however, that the number of hospitals will increase. On the contrary, Dr. Ochoa predicts that the number of hospitals will decrease and "there will be only the patient who really should be, in 10 or 15 years most of the diseases will be spent at home."

Patients ask for simplicity and truthfulness

From the perspective of the patients, Enrique Barba, member of the Spanish and European melanoma associations, explained that "the two key challenges in the medical communication to patients are simplicity and truthfulness so that the messages are understandable for the patient".

According to Barba, "today a lot of medical information is available, but a part is false and patients can not receive false news, it is necessary that the sources are trustworthy." In this regard, he has warned about the indiscriminate publication of medical articles: "Scientific journals subject to peer review are usually trustworthy, but there are other journals that could be described as" predatory "that publish any material in exchange for money. "

All the participants of the table agreed on the need for the patient to be adequately trained in order to participate adequately in the new model of health care.

Source: Senior Senior