AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy Program keeps contributing to the development of patient associations with new projects
07.05.2025
Within the scope of the AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy, educational booklets prepared with course notes from the Patient Representation Training Program, carried out in cooperation with AIFD and Lokman Hekim University, were published.
AIFD, which operates to accelerate access to innovative medicines and treatments in Türkiye and to increase Türkiye’s global competitiveness in the field of pharmaceutical research and development (R&D), carries out various projects to enable patient associations in Türkiye to take a more active and well-equipped role in decision-making mechanisms, similar to practices in Europe. In 2020, AIFD launched the AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy project under the leadership of the Social Innovation Center, whose activities support various capacity building programs and new projects every year.
As part of this approach, the Patient Representation Training Program, organized by AIFD and Lokman Hekim University in the last quarter of 2024, aims to equip patients with access to necessary information and empower them to contribute more effectively towards the healthcare system. This new step by AIFD, guided by the framework of the patient initiative, represents an important stage in strengthening patient representation and promoting more inclusive decision-making processes in the healthcare system.
To allow for more patients to access and benefit from the content of the program, Prof. Dr. Bülent Gümüşel and Dr. Lecturer Elif Hilal Vural’s lecture notes were consolidated into educational booklets. Through this initiative, Prof. Dr. Bülent Gümüşel and Lecturer Elif Hilal Vural’s lecture notes were made available to all stakeholders on the AIFD website.
Inspired by the EUPATI Model
Inspired by good practice examples such as the EUPATI model in Europe, the Patient Representative Training Program, which involved 12 different patient associations, aimed to empower patient associations through more knowledge. Patient association representatives received training on a wide range of topics from clinical research to reimbursement processes, from licensing processes to health literacy. By publishing the information as booklets, the project aimed to ensure the permanence of the information shared and to serve as a reference source.