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Preliminary Conference Program
| 07 Nov | DAY 01 | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 7:00 am - 9:00 am |
Global Patients Insight Meetings | Alzheimer's Disease & Dementias
(By Invitation Only) Supported by: Bristol Myers Squibb |
| 9:30 am – 10:30 am |
WPA Members Council Meeting
(For 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: Lukaz Rickiki, Carita Foundation Moderator: Elena Moya, Spanish Patients Forum Panelists:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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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: Karla Ruiz De Castilla, Esperantra Presentation: Universal Health Coverage: Turning Global Commitments into People Centred Health Systems Speaker: Irina Papieva, World Health Organization Panelists:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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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: Dr Mary Nyamongo, NCD Alliance Kenya (NCDAK) Moderator: Andrew Speigel, Global Colon Cancer Association (GCCA) Panelists:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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| 03:00 pm – 04:00 pm |
Patient Safety in Noncommunicable Diseases: Advancing Safe Care Across the Continuum
People living with noncommunicable diseases often require long term and complex care across multiple services and care settings. Patient-safety risks can arise throughout the care continuum, from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, treatment, long-term management including self-care, rehabilitation, and palliative care. Aligned with the World Patient Safety Day 2026 theme, this session will explore key safety challenges in NCD care, including diagnostic errors, medication errors, fragmented services, communication failures, inadequate follow-up, and barriers to accessing safe care. Bringing together patient, caregiver, and health-system perspectives from different regions and disease areas, the session will highlight practical solutions to address the major sources of harm across the care continuum. It will reinforce the role of patients as essential partners in supporting/advancing safer care and improving NCD outcomes.
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Chair: Jolanta Bilinska, Patient Safety Foundation Moderator: Helen Haskell, Chair, WPA Patient Safety & Quality Council Presentation: Patient Safety in NCDs Speaker: Irina Papieva, World Health Organization Panelists:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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| 04:00 pm – 04:30 pm |
Global Launch of the Patient Online Training Initiative
The World Patients Alliance is committed to strengthening the knowledge, skills, and leadership of patients, caregivers, and patient advocates, enabling them to participate more effectively in healthcare decision making, patient safety, research, policy, and advocacy.
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In support of this commitment, WPA, in collaboration with the University of Kalisz, Poland, plans to develop two online training programmes: the Patient Advocate Champion Programme and the Patient Safety Training Programme. Designed primarily for patients, caregivers, and patient advocates, the programmes will also provide valuable learning opportunities for healthcare professionals, medical students, and other healthcare stakeholders. The proposed programmes will address key areas including patient rights and empowerment, patient-centred care, shared decision-making, advocacy, patient safety and healthcare quality, participation in research and clinical trials, health technology assessment, digital health, and artificial intelligence. This short session will formally announce the forthcoming initiative and present its vision, proposed scope, and anticipated contribution to strengthening patient leadership and advancing safer, more equitable, and patient-centred healthcare. Chair: Andrzej Wojtyła, University of Kalisz Moderator: Hussain Jafri, World Patients Alliance (WPA)
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Moderator
Presentation Title
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| 04:30 pm |
Coffee Break
|
| 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm |
Global Patients Insight Meetings | Cancers
(By Invitation Only) Supported by: Bristol Myers Squibb |
| Day 2 | |
| 08 Nov | DAY 02 | Sessions |
|---|---|
| 7:00 am - 9:00 am |
Global Patients Insight Meetings | Sickle Cell Disease
(By Invitation Only) Supported by: Bristol Myers Squibb |
| 09:30 am – 10:30 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: Meheshinder Singh, Colorectal cancer Survivorship Society Malaysia (CORUM) Moderator: Rida Viljoen, South African Cystic Fibrosis Association Presentation 1: Self-Care: Enabling Patients to Prevent, Manage, and Thrive Speaker: Manjulaa Narasimhan, World Health Organization Presentation 2: Self-Care at the Forefront of Prevention: Unlocking Health, Social and Economic Value Speaker: Evah Amwayi, Global Self-Care Federation Panelists:
Chair
Moderator
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| 10:30 am – 11:30 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 Panelists:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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| 11:30 am – 12:00 pm |
Coffee Break
|
| 12:00 pm – 01:00 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 Kai-Hsun HSIAO, World Health Organization Panelists:
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Moderator
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| 01:00 pm -02:00 pm |
Lunch
|
| African Regional Meeting | |
| 02:00 pm – 02:10 pm |
Inauguration of the African Regional Meeting
Welcome Remarks: Andrew Spiegel, Board Chair WPA |
| 02:10 pm – 03:30 pm |
Patient Advocacy & Access Across Africa
Presentation: “From Voices to Influence: Strengthening Patient Advocacy and Healthcare Access Across Africa” Panel Discussion: Strengthening Patient Advocacy and Transforming Healthcare Across Africa Moderator:
Panelists:
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Moderator
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| 03:30 pm – 05:00 pm |
Antimicrobial Resistance and Patient Engagement in Africa (Co-Creation Workshop)
Lead co-facilitators:
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Moderator
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Speaker(s)
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| 05:30 pm |
Tea
|
| End of Conference | |