Consolidation & Sustainability Alignment Workshop – HTA4Patients Project

On 2–3 December, EUPATI brought together partners, experts, national platforms and HTA ambassadors in Brussels for the HTA4Patients Consolidation & Sustainability Alignment Workshop. 

🔎 Day 1: Looking Back at the HTA4Patients Journey 

We reflected on the development of: 

• 🎓 EU HTAR Course on the EUPATI Open Classroom 
• 📚 Mini-Course Starter Kit in the EUPATI Toolbox 

A huge thank you to all experts, Eupati National Platforms and our HTA Ambassadors for co-creating these materials. They are now available in 8 languages: EN, PT, ES, FR, DE, EL, CZ, IT.  

We also celebrated organising 13 training sessions so far (7 EN, 1 PT, 2 CZ, 1 IT, 1 in ES, and 1 in NL) together with HTA experts, ambassadors and patient organisations.

💡 Key Lessons Learned 

• Using a multistakeholder approach and co-developing content with patient advocates and HTA experts, made the materials far more relevant. 
• Multilingual training is a must — HTA terminology is complex, and understanding improves enormously when learners can follow in their own language.  
• Continuous communication (email, WhatsApp groups, regular updates) kept our community engaged and connected. 
• Tracking data and metrics was essential to understand reach, uptake and impact.  

But we also discussed remaining challenges: with the project ending in Feb 2026, we are working towards identifying creative ways to sustain collaboration, regularly update and potentially expand the translated resources, and continue supporting our HTA Ambassadors long-term. 

👥 Expert Insights & Stakeholder Voices 

We were thrilled to have Anke-Peggy Holtorf with us to explain why patient involvement in HTA matters, and how strong education and critical thinking empower meaningful involvement in the HTA processes. 

One of the key highlights was our stakeholder panel, uniting voices from the European Commission, national HTA bodies, academia, policy, patient organisations, and other actors who are actively supporting patient involvement in HTA processes on the operational side. Key messages included: 

• Patients are involved in HTA processes, but often still lack clear, accessible explanations of how EU-level HTA works and what is expected from them. 
• We need plain-language, reliable, easy-to-access information. 
• Patient organisations and healthcare professionals also need more training in health policy and HTA to better guide patients—timing is crucial in JSCs and JCAs. 
• A more harmonised, transparent approach to collecting and using patient input is needed across Europe. 
• National organisations must stay informed about EU-level developments and help systematically collect patient input. 

Another key moment of the day was the HTA Ambassadors’ session, where representatives from the Netherlands, Greece and Luxembourg shared the main challenges and enablers from their national contexts. Despite different HTA systems in place, they all highlighted the need for: 

• More education for HTA bodies and healthcare professionals 
• Stronger cross-country collaboration 
• Clear, transparent processes and expectations for patient involvement 
• More funding to support awareness-building and trainings  

🌱 Day 2: Building Sustainability 

We brainstormed future directions and agreed on priority actions: 

• Boost awareness of existing materials & create national-context versions 
• Develop trainings for different levels (intro, intermediate, expert) 
• Use more videos, visuals, gamification & practical examples  
• Train national authorities on patient involvement (with support from HTA Ambassadors) 
• Strengthen collaboration with patient organisations that guide patients entering HTA processes 
• Maintain strong connections with ENPs and national HTA bodies 

The consensus was clear: ‘‘Training for patients, co-created by patients and co-delivered by patients.’’ 

Thank you to all participants and our fantastic speakers:
Anke-Peggy Holtorf, Valentina Strammiello, Marcus Guardian, Julie Spony, Petra Adamková, Maggie Galbraith, Julia Chamova, Sergey Dmitriev, Ingrid Krücken, Diana Hoekstra

And a big thanks to our on-site EUPATI team: Maria Dutarte, Finn McCartney, Katerina Charapa, Laia Bisbal, Bojan Cigan, and Ingrid Heyne. We couldn’t have done it without you!