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Conference Program
| 07 Nov | DAY 01 | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 9:30 am – 10:30 am |
WPA Members Council Meeting
(Fro Members Only) |
| 10:30 am – 10:45 am |
Coffee Break
|
| 10:45 am – 11:00 am |
Inauguration of the Conference
Andrew Spiegel (Chair, WPA) Regina Kamoga (Conference Chair), |
| 11:00 am – 12:00 pm |
From Passive Patients to Empowered Partners
Patient engagement is increasingly recognised as a cornerstone of high-quality, patient-centred healthcare. Around the world, health systems are moving away from traditional models in which patients are passive recipients of care, toward approaches that value them as informed, engaged, and empowered partners in their own health journey. This shift is not only changing how care is delivered, but also how decisions are made, relationships are built, and outcomes are achieved.
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This session will focus on the importance of meaningful patient engagement in shaping more collaborative care models, where patients are actively involved in decisions about their treatment, care planning, and overall health. It will explore how shared decision-making can strengthen trust, improve communication, and ensure that care reflects what matters most to patients. The discussion will also highlight the key conditions needed to support effective patient engagement, including education, access to information, transparency, and supportive systems that enable patients to participate with confidence. By placing patient engagement at the centre of the conversation, this session will examine how healthcare systems can move beyond consultation and toward true partnership with patients. Chair: Inge Dhamanti, Center of Excellence for Patient Safety and Quality Moderator: Elena Moya, Spanish Patients Forum Panelists:
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| 12:00 pm – 01:00 pm |
From Policy to People: Co-Creating UHC with Patients at the Center
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is a global priority, yet its success ultimately depends on how well it reflects the real needs, experiences, and priorities of patients. While many countries have made significant policy commitments toward UHC, there remains a critical gap between high-level frameworks and the realities people face in accessing safe, affordable, and quality care. Bridging this gap requires moving beyond policy design to meaningful patient engagement at every stage of the process.
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This session will focus on how UHC can be co-created with patients as active partners, rather than designed for them in isolation. It will explore how patient voices can shape policies, influence service delivery, and strengthen accountability, ensuring that UHC systems are responsive, inclusive, and grounded in lived experience. The discussion will also highlight practical and actionable pathways for embedding patient engagement across the UHC journey, from policy development and implementation to monitoring and evaluation. By bringing together patient leaders, policymakers, and system stakeholders, this session will examine how to translate the promise of UHC into people-centred outcomes that truly leave no one behind. Chair: JS Arora, National Thalassemia Welfare Society Moderator: Regina Namata Kamoga, Community Health and Information Network (CHAIN) Presentation: Universal Health Coverage: Turning Global Commitments into People Centred Health Systems Speaker: World Health Organization (WHO) (TBC) Panelists:
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| 01:00 pm – 02:00 pm |
Group Photo | Lunch Break
|
| 02:00 pm – 03:00 pm |
From Individual Engagement to System Change: Strengthening Patient–Provider Collaboration
Collaboration between patients and healthcare providers is essential to achieving truly patient-centred healthcare. While engagement has traditionally been limited to one off interactions or consultation, there is a growing recognition that meaningful change requires sustained, system level partnerships where patients are actively involved in shaping care and services.
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This session will explore the evolving shift from passive consultation to active collaboration, examining what true partnership looks like in practice from the patient perspective. It will highlight how stronger relationships between patients and providers built on trust, respect, and shared decision-making can improve health outcomes and experiences. The discussion will also focus on how patient voices can influence not only individual care, but also the design of services, policies, and health systems. By identifying practical mechanisms to institutionalize patient partnership across governance, service delivery, and accountability, this session will examine how collaboration can move from isolated examples to a standard approach embedded within healthcare systems worldwide. Chair: Janek Kepper, The Estonian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Association Moderator: Andrew Speigel, Global Colon Cancer Association (GCCA) Panelists:
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| 03:00 pm – 04:00 pm |
Patient Safety in Noncommunicable Diseases: From Treatment to Safe, Sustainable Care
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of illness and death globally, requiring long-term, often complex care that places patients at the centre of ongoing treatment and decision making. As the global community marks World Patient Safety Day 2026 with a focus on safe care for NCDs, there is a timely opportunity to elevate the patient perspective on safety, beyond clinical settings and into everyday life.
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This session will explore patient safety in the context of NCDs, with particular attention to the growing burden of care placed on patients and caregivers. It will examine how self management, lifestyle changes, and long term treatment regimens can introduce new risks if patients are not adequately supported, informed, and empowered. The discussion will also address critical concerns around overmedication and overtreatment, highlighting how complex care pathways can sometimes lead to unnecessary interventions, increased costs, and potential harm. By centring patient experiences, this session will consider how health systems can better support safe, effective, and sustainable care for people living with NCDs. It will highlight the importance of clear communication, shared decision making, and patient education in reducing risks and improving outcomes. Aligned with the global focus of World Patient Safety Day, this session will contribute to a broader call for safer, more patient-centred approaches to managing NCDs worldwide. Chair: Jolanta Bilinska, Patient Safety Foundation Moderator: Helen Haskell, Chair, WPA Patient Safety & Quality Council Presentation: Patient Safety in NCDs Speaker: World Health Organization (WHO) (TBC)
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| 04:00 pm – 04:30 pm |
Launch of Patient Online Training Programs
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Chair: Andrzej Wojtyła, University of Kalisz Moderator: Hussain Jafri, World Patients Alliance (WPA)
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| 04:30 pm |
Coffee Break | End of Day-1
|
| Day 2 | |
| 20 Nov | DAY 02 | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 09:00 am – 10:00 am |
The Invisible Patient in the Age of AI and Digital Health: Who Is Being Left Behind?
As healthcare systems rapidly evolve through digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and remote care models, a fundamental question emerges: are these innovations truly designed around patients or are patients becoming increasingly invisible within them?
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This session will explore the growing gap between system design and lived patient experience, examining how efficiency driven digital solutions can unintentionally overlook the real needs, capabilities, and contexts of patients. It will highlight the risks of digital exclusion, particularly for those with limited access, low digital literacy, or complex health needs, and consider how this may deepen existing health inequities. At the same time, the discussion will focus on the opportunity to reposition patients at the centre of digital transformation, moving beyond passive users to active partners in the design of technologies, services, and care pathways. Bringing together patient leaders, system experts, and innovators, this session will challenge current approaches and explore what truly patient-centred digital healthcare should look like in practice. Chair: Ibrahima Mubarak, Niger League Figth againt Cancer Moderator: Nicole Sheahan, Global Colon Cancer Association (GCCA) Presentation: AI and Digital Transformation: Designing Healthcare with Patients Speaker: Ravi Ruparel, Platform Worldwide
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| 10:00 am – 11:00 am |
From Awareness to Action: Empowering Patients for Everyday Self-Care
Self-care is a fundamental yet often under-recognized component of healthcare, shaping how individuals prevent illness, manage conditions, and maintain their overall wellbeing on a daily basis. While global health agendas increasingly emphasize its importance, the reality for many patients is that self-care is influenced by access to information, confidence in decision-making, and the support systems around them.
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This session will explore what self-care truly means from a patient perspective, moving beyond theory to the everyday choices patients make in managing their health, from prevention and symptom monitoring to treatment adherence and mental wellbeing. It will highlight the critical role of health literacy in enabling patients to access, understand, and use reliable information to make informed decisions about their care. The discussion will also address the barriers that limit effective self-care, including misinformation, cultural factors, unequal access to resources, and lack of system support. By centring patient experiences, this session will examine how healthcare systems, communities, and stakeholders can better support individuals to take informed, confident action in managing their health. Chair: Gloria Ekeng, Stroke Care International (SCI) Moderator: Kağan Çavuşoğlu, Red Ribbon Istanbul Presentation: Self-Care: Enabling Patients to Prevent, Manage, and Thrive Speaker: Global Self-Care Federation (GSCF) (TBC)
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| 11:00 am – 11:30 am |
Coffee Break
|
| 11:30 am – 12:15 pm |
Patients at the Centre of Health Emergencies: Ensuring Continuity of Care in Crisis
Health emergencies, whether driven by conflict, displacement, or climate-related disasters are increasingly disrupting lives and health systems across the world. For patients, these crises are not only about immediate survival, but about the loss of access to essential medicines, treatments, and support services that are critical for ongoing care and wellbeing. Yet, patient experiences and needs often remain underrepresented in emergency preparedness and response efforts.
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This session will explore the realities faced by patients during emergencies, with a focus on how disruptions affect continuity of care, particularly for those living with chronic conditions, disabilities, and complex health needs. It will examine the barriers patients encounter in accessing safe, consistent, and dignified care across different settings, including conflict zones, displacement contexts, and climate-affected communities. The discussion will also highlight the importance of adopting rights based, patient-centred approaches to emergency response, ensuring that dignity, equity, and inclusion are upheld even in times of crisis. It will further explore the critical role of patient organizations in strengthening preparedness, supporting affected communities, and advocating for systems that protect continuity of care before, during, and after emergencies. Chair: Francisco Freyria, Fundación Fomento de Desarrollo Teresa de Jesús, I.A.P (FUTEJE) Moderator: Edmund Lau, Psoriasis Association of Singapore Presentation: Health Emergencies in a Changing World: Protecting Patients and Ensuring Continuity of Care in Crisis Speaker: Dr. Flavio Salio, World Health Organization (WHO) Panelists:
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| 11:30 am – 12:15 pm |
Caregiving at the Core: Recognizing, Supporting, and Empowering Caregivers
Family caregivers play a vital yet often overlooked role in healthcare systems around the world. They provide continuous support to patients across all stages of care, managing daily needs, coordinating services, and often performing complex medical tasks, while receiving limited recognition or support. Their contributions are essential not only to patient wellbeing, but also to the sustainability of health systems, where informal care significantly reduces the burden on institutional services.
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This session will bring attention to the lived realities of caregivers, exploring the emotional, physical, and financial challenges they face. It will highlight the risks of caregiver burnout and the urgent need for more structured, system level support to protect their wellbeing and enable them to continue providing care effectively. The discussion will also focus on how caregivers can be better supported through training, education, and access to practical tools that strengthen their confidence and capacity. By transforming caregiver stress into competence and resilience, and by recognizing caregivers as key partners in care, this session will explore how health systems can more effectively integrate and support this critical workforce. Chair: Tom Norris, American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA)s Moderator: Karla Ruiz De Castilla, Esperantra Presentation: Caring for the Caregivers: Building Resilient, Patient- and Family-Centred Health Systems Speaker: Carers Worldwide (TBC)
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| 01:00 pm -02:00 pm |
Lunch
|
| African Regional Meeting: Strengthening the Patient Voice in Africa | |