IAPO statements at the WHO Executive Board 150th session, January 2022

IAPO statements at the WHO Executive Board 150th session, January 2022

Members
Tuesday, 22 February 2022

The 150th session of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board (EB) took place virtually on 24th - 29th January 2022. Thanks to IAPO’s official relations status with the World Health Organization, we leveraged this meeting by delivering three statements in line with our call for global patient-centred healthcare.

 

Agenda Item 7: Political declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases
IAPO is an alliance of nearly 300 patient organisations representing over 1 million patients and their carers in over 70 countries for over 22 years. We note with concern that NCD care services have deteriorated in most Member States due to COVID 19 pressures affecting the whole spectrum of NCD healthcare from promotion, treatment to palliative care. This has increased the morbidity, mortality, and mental health problems.
 
The Moon Shot to find COVID 19 vaccines has unleashed amazing spin-off health technologies that can transform our NCD healthcare systems. We must move away from small molecules, analogue health devices and siloed approaches and use innovation and patient coproduction to humanise NCD health care by applying:
  • WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-30 
  • Digital Health 
  • Personalised healthcare and precision medicine 
  • Genomics
  • Patient engagement pathways in medicines regulation and health technology assessment
  Agenda Item 14: Standardization of medical devices nomenclature

The International Alliance of Patients Organizations welcomes the Director Generals reports on standardization of medical devices nomenclature. IAPO concurs that we must have an international classification, coding, and nomenclature for medical devices (INMD) made available to all Member States and their patient communities as this will support patient safety and the WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030.

The INMD must be co-created with the patients, health professionals and industry stakeholders and work with the grain of the existing nomenclature systems like Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) and the International Medical Devices Regulators Forum to develop a harmonized approach.

Patient cocreation and coproduction is essential in producing safe, quality, accessible, acceptable, affordable health devices to deliver WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030.

  Agenda item: Draft recommendations to strengthen and monitor diabetes responses within national noncommunicable disease programmes, including potential targets

IAPO is an alliance of nearly 300 patient organisations representing over 1 million patients and their carers in over 70 countries for the last 22 years. We note with concern that diabetes care services have deteriorated in most Member States due to COVID 19 pressures affecting the whole spectrum of diabetes healthcare from promotion, treatment to palliative care. This has increased the morbidity, mortality, and mental health problems. The Moon Shot to find COVID 19 vaccines has unleased amazing spin-off health technology that can transform our diabetes healthcare systems. We must move away from analogue health devices and siloed approaches and use innovation and patient coproduction to humanise diabetes health care by applying:

  • WHO Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-30
  • Digital Health
  • Personalised healthcare and precision medicine
  • Genomics
  • Patient engagement pathways in medicines regulation and health technology assessment
  • Biosimilars