Evidence-Based Advocacy
Patients and patient advocates may be in the best position to express what patients want and need. However, individual opinions are not always the most effective to convince researchers, healthcare providers, or regulatory decision-makers. In order to help healthcare to focus on the true needs of patients and their subpopulations, patient advocates should generate robust evidence and publish it.
“Evidence-Based Patient Advocacy” means advocating in a targeted, scientific, well-educated, and professional manner to measure the impact of advocacy work. It is based on three core elements: targeted advocacy towards each respective stakeholder, use of robust data about patients’ needs and preferences, and use of the right packaging of messages to communicate the needs to the respective target group.
As part of the WECAN Academy, WECAN hosts special training programs on Evidence-based advocacy (EBA). Patient advocates nominated by WECAN member organisations are trained in evidence generation, analyzing and publishing data, and the practical use of this data to drive change. WECAN Evidence-Based Advocacy projects feature online courses (outlined below) along with additional capacity-building initiatives. To stay informed about these projects, click here.
Courses on Evidence-Based Advocacy
Strategy & Design Workshop
A two-month interactive course for participants to develop an evidence-generation project with 1:1 support from patient experts.
Patients in Publications
Open-access online course for patient advocates on how publish their own research and survey data, and how to act as co-authors or peer-reviewers
Evidence-Based Advocacy Fundamentals
An open-access online course on the basics of EBA. This course will provide overview of the major steps of any evidence-generation project.
Evidence-Based Advocacy: Evidence generation and publication
In 2020 WECAN initiated the first training program on EBA for patient advocates.
Patient Experience Data (PED) Course
An open-access online course studied to equip patient advocates with the fundamentals of PED. This course will provide an overview of the main types of PED, methods of data collection and analysis, and their use for advocacy purposes. Click below to access the modules:
Supporters
WECAN Evidence-Based Advocacy projects are hosted by the European Patient Advocacy Institute gUG on behalf of WECAN. Funding for the year 2024 was obtained from the following funders:
