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Esteve and the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya will study the actual needs of chronic patients

By 11 de February de 2013November 18th, 2020No Comments
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From Left to Right: Pere Alavedra i Ribot, UIC Rector, and Antoni Esteve. Source: Esteve/UIC.
 11.02.2013

Esteve and the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya will study the actual needs of chronic patients

An agreement signed this morning between ESTEVE and the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya(UIC) will develop research and scientific training projects aimed at improving chronic patient care —one of the greatest challenges currently faced by the healthcare system. With this alliance, the farmaceutical group –which has transferred its R&D center for drug discovery at Barcelona Science Park– takes its commitment to chronicity one step further, which adds to its wide experience in the most relevant areas, including cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, osteoarticular and nervous system.


The first project arising from this new agreement is a “Research study to analyze the chronic patient’s behavior and healthcare needs. An Itinerary of the Chronic Patient”. This Esteve-funded one-year study is to be conducted by the UIC’s Global Institute for Public Health and Health Policies, and is endorsed by the Spanish Forum of Patients.

The objective of the study is to review the efficacy of the main strategies currently used to approach chronicity, and also to assess how chronic patients feel about their situation and about these strategies. The ultimate purpose is to ascertain the behavior of chronic patients and their specific, actual healthcare needs, as well as to propose strategies likely to offer the best possible response. Importantly, patients are to get involved for achieving these goals.

The relevance of this study lies in the possibility of creating sensitivity and awareness among the population regarding the benefits of new chronicity approaches based on evaluation criteria defined according to effectiveness and, of importance, including the viewpoints of the affected subjects themselves.

This study is meant to improve the chronicity care process, to establish an integrated framework for action, and to encourage action aimed at improving issues like patient education, patient adherence to treatments as prescribed, health care provider scientific training, and research in these fields.

To serve this purpose, the study will include three distinct phases. The first phase will review the scientific literature on the basic needs of chronic patients; the second phase will include a qualitative study of patients suffering from a chronic disease for more than one year; and the third phase will include specific recommendations for designing more effective strategies likely to improve the chronic patient’s health and quality of life based on the results obtained in the two previous phases.