Despite the great efforts done in the last decades by patient organisations and patient advocates, inequalities and access barriers may be more persistent than we think among European patients needing allergy and airways diseases care. While research is progressing and new diagnostic and treatment opportunities and self-management solutions are becoming available to patients, we do not know if and how those are integrated into the different European healthcare systems. Are European countries adopting new prevention and care measures for people with respiratory diseases? Does the current available disease-specific support respond to the needs and interests of the patients?
To answer all these questions, in 2018 EFA launched a survey for asthma and COPD patients to assess the level of patients’ access to Diagnosis, Care, Prevention, and Patient Empowerment. Together with EFA Members, we translated the questionnaire into six languages and interviewed 774 patients in Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and United Kingdom, 387 asthma, 387 COPD. The results will be available in February 2019 and will be key to #ShowLeadership, an EFA European campaign to highlight patients’ emotions, care choices and priorities and to request political and policy action in Europe.