IAPO has 4 categories of Members: Full, Associate, Affiliated and Network. Full and Associate Members enjoy greater benefits and are paid categories, while Affiliated and Network Members enjoy free membership with limited benefits.
Full Members
Full Members are patient organizations which are patient-driven. To ensure that IAPO is truly driven by patients, Full Members have greater voting rights at our General Assembly and enjoy more benefits than other members.
Full Members must meet all the criteria below:
- Must be non-profit and non-governmental.
- Must have a legal status appropriate to the country of origin.
- May be an international, regional, national or local organization, or an umbrella group.
- The organization must demonstrate commitment to patients and the principle of patient-centred healthcare.
- The organization must be patient-driven: the needs and views of patients drive the organization’s strategy, policies and activities in a significant way.
Associate Members are healthcare-related organizations who are not eligible to become IAPO Full Members. To ensure that IAPO is patient-driven, Associate Members have minority voting rights at our General Assembly.
Associate Members must meet all the criteria below:
- Must be non-profit and non-governmental.
- Must have a legal status appropriate to the country of origin.
- May be an international, regional, national or local organization, or an umbrella group.
- The organization must demonstrate commitment to improving healthcare and to the principle of patient-centred healthcare.
Affiliated Members
Affiliated Members are member organizations of a parent umbrella group or alliance that is a Full Member of IAPO. This is a free membership and can only be enjoyed by those who are approved by their own umbrella groups and alliance, and agree to abide by IAPO bylaws and rules of conduct/policy. The free membership comes with restricted rights: Affiliated Members shall not have a voting right and their privileges shall be restricted. The IAPO Governing Board shall from time to time determine, together with the parent umbrella groups and alliances, which such organizations are admitted and what their rights, obligations and privileges shall be.
Affiliated Members must meet all criteria below:
- Be a member organization of a parent umbrella group or alliance that is a Full Member of IAPO.
- Provide a written statement from their parent umbrella group or alliance that the applicant is their member and that they endorse their application.
Network Members
Network Members are patient organizations or healthcare-related organizations, networks or alliances committed to improving healthcare and to the principle of patient centred healthcare. Network Members enjoy free membership at IAPO while having restricted rights and benefits:
- No voting rights in the Annual General Assembly or Extraordinary Meetings;
- Participation as an observer in the Annual General Assembly and Extraordinary Meetings;
- No rights to nominate candidates for the Governing Board;
- No rights to represent IAPO at the WHO Regional Committee meetings, and international or regional events;
- No rights to use our Members logo on their communication channels and other promotional materials.
Network Members must meet all the criteria below:
- Must be non-profit and non-governmental.
- Must have a legal status appropriate to the country of origin.
- May be an international, regional, national or local organization, or an umbrella group.
- The organization must demonstrate commitment to improving healthcare and to the principle of patient-centred healthcare.
- We define a patient as “a person with any chronic disease, illness, syndrome, impairment or disability”. We aim to be representative of all patients regardless of gender, race, class, culture, religion or belief, age, sexuality, lifestyle or degree of able-bodiedness.
- We define patient representatives as "patients" organization representatives, family members or carers”.
Table of benefits per IAPO membership category