Board Users

Participation and dialogue

The participation of patients and users in the planning of health care choices and its involvement in decision-making processes are indispensable conditions in a modern health care system interested in the effectiveness, quality and efficiency of the services provided.

Candiolo IRCCS has been a proponent of establishing a team of patient representatives, the “board,” to place the user as a key player within the care system by fostering a dialogue between the parties, with the aim of improving the following goals:

• Broaden the strategic vision of the organization by identifying priorities, expectations and needs of patients;
• Integrate the views of patients and family members into care, treatment and research decision-making processes;
• Rethinking the processes of interaction between the health care facility and the user and their needs, with a view to continuous improvement of products and services;
• positively impact patient education and empowerment in oncology, seen as a bidirectional approach to training/information and communication.

Patient representatives are identified following the following criteria:

• Patients in the care of the Institute for at least 6 months;
• Patients who have an ongoing care relationship with the Institute;
• patients taken in by different disciplines (Surgical and Medical) in order to assemble a representative sample of the various care pathways.

Candidates for board membership are identified at the suggestion of the Institute’s physicians from among patients meeting the above criteria and then convened by the Medical Director for proposed recruitment to the board. Entry to the board, following the summons, is subject to the patient’s own voluntariness at any time, for various reasons, the patient may choose to leave the board upon notifying the Health Department.

For the purpose of facilitating the exchange of views while preserving the plurality of suggestions, the board consists of between 13 and 18 patients.