With our vision that prioritizes the inclusion of a patient-centered perspective in decision-making mechanisms, we care about the needs of patient associations, which respond to an important solidarity need in our country as well as around the world and have an extremely important place in the healthcare eco-system, and we develop and formulate our work for patient associations according to the needs of the hour.
The Patient Initiative Core Committee within AIFD carries out its work to respond to the needs of patient associations and patients. We strengthen the communication between the sector and patients through various projects that will support the professional work of patient associations and provide the information and guidance they need in their endeavor, and we support the creation of useful and valuable mechanisms for the associations.
In this direction, the AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy, which started its activities with 9 patient associations in 2020, graduated 9 associations in 2022 and issued a new call, the announcement of which was shared with all patient associations, and 7 new patient associations were included in this program with the evaluation of the applications received. The AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy, which continues to provide consultancy services to 9 graduated associations, continues to provide training and consultancy services to 16 associations within the AIFD Patient Associations Development Academy.
The Together for Health Gatherings panel series, which is open to all patient association representatives, where all patient associations in Turkey can be informed by experts in their fields on the issues they need, was held in June 2022 with the participation of patient association representatives. Bulletins containing the details and presentations of all topics covered in the event were shared with all patient associations after the event.
With the aim of providing a solution to the general problems experienced by Patient Associations in the implementation of Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK), the KUM (KVKK Compliance Model) project was implemented with a pilot application, and KVKK Audit service was provided to 5 patient associations with the support of a legal consultancy company. Common problems encountered were shared at the Together for Health Gathering Meetings panel organized with the participation of all patient association representatives.
Market research was conducted among patient associations to ensure the correct and effective use of digital communication tools, which have increased in use in the post-pandemic period by the associations and to understand the needs of association representatives in the field of digitalization. The research, consisting of a qualitative and quantitative process, was completed with the participation of 35 Patient Associations and some projects targeted to be realized in 2023 were determined in the light of the data of this study.
In order to determine the new projects and priorities of the committee in 2023, a workshop was held with the participation of the members of the Patient Initiative Core Committee; the new year projects were decided and responsibilities assigned to members.
In 2023, the Patient Associations Development Academy will continue to be held with an expanded training program and Together for Health Gatherings meetings will continue to be held with new topics and expert speakers. It was decided to realize the training project on effective digital media management of patient associations, which is one of the important needs identified after the market research, and to create a website for sharing the prepared digital contents.
