About Patient
Advocacy Leaders Summit (PALS)
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The concept of a
Patient Advocacy Leaders Summit (PALS) was developed by GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK) in 2002 as a way of bringing together a diverse group of patient
advocacy leaders to address skills development and identify ways to
collaborate. Unique to PALS is the concept of patient advocates
converging together to share common health policy concerns, forge ways
to collaborate to expand influence, refine advocacy skills, and discuss
health policy issues with experts and GSK staff. GSK partnered with the
National Health Council to develop and implement the first meeting in
2002. Since that time, all national meetings have been planned by a
national PALS Advisory Board, comprised of a diverse group of
representatives from the patient advocacy community.
PALS has gained great momentum in the past six years, leaving a
large “footprint” within the advocacy community. Since 2002,
close to 5,000 leaders representing over 2,000 organizations in 50+
countries have participated in over 75 PALS events around the world.
- National meetings have been conducted in the US in
2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.
- In 2004, an international meeting of 400 advocates from 26
countries and 38 States was held in the US.
- Meetings have also been held in Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, The
Netherlands and the UK.
- A total of over 60 Regional PALS (RPALS) were
held the US in 2005-2008, and many are being planned for 2009. There
have also been many Immunization PALS (IPALS) and a Veteran's PALS
(VPALS) in 2008. PALS Webinars , coined ePALS , were introduced in 2008 ,
and four have been held to date.
- As a direct result of PALS, US State coalitions have formed
to advocate collectively for improved access to care & treatment.
Some states have even formed PALS Chapters.
- A PALS Community website was launched in 2007 at the
specific request of leaders to stay connected, share best practices and
have a central clearinghouse for tools and resources for patient
advocates.
PALS events have addressed topics such as: skills training,
grass-roots lobbying, access to prescription drug benefits, state
initiatives to reduce costs, diversity, use of technology, innovation
& patient care, research & development, outcomes research &
public policy, European governmental affairs, programs on disease
management, patient recruitment & patient assistance, coalition
development, engaging legislative leaders, fundraising, drug
development, and best practices. PALS has provided leaders with a
resource for training/skills development that had previously not
existed.
In an environment of stakeholder silos that can create
inefficiencies to organizational advocacy, PALS has demonstrated over
eight years that peer-to-peer, patient-centered, multidisciplinary
efforts to train & discuss health policy issues of common concern
can benefit individual leaders, patient advocacy organizations and GSK.
By working together in such a way, we have found that we can create
broad-based collaborations that promote patient-centered health of all
people. It’s the old synergy model, where one plus one equals three.
For more information, please contact Jeff Peterson at (919)
483-8509, or Anne Easter at (919) 483-7644, from GSK’s Alliance
Development Team within the Public Policy & Advocacy department.
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| Patient Advocacy Leaders Summit |
