http//:www.partecipasalute.it: a project aimed at empowering consumers and patients' associations to participate in health care decisions

The project PartecipaSalute ("Participate in Health Care") - coordinated by the Mario Negri Institute and supported by the "Compagnia di San Paolo" a bank foundation - started in September 2003 with the aim to raise public awareness on health, health care-related issues, and to empower consumers. Within the project this website has been launched with the aim of providing reliable information on the effects of health care interventions as well as to familiarize consumers with the world of clinical and epidemiological research. The objective of this website is to enable patients, consumers and their associations to have an "active" participation in healthcare decisions.

Why a new web site? In Italy the need and demand for information tailored to consumers is rapidly increasing. Existing websites (created by consumers' associations, pharmaceutical companies and medical societies) are mostly "passive vehicles" disseminating reports and news without any attempt to critically appraise the content nor to empower users on how to find reliable information on their own. This website is intended mainly for consumers, patients and patients' associations and it aims at providing the tools necessary in order to:

• critically appraise health information
• know their rights and play an active role in the NHS
• have an active participation in healthcare decisions
• know benefits and limits of clinical research
• collaborate with the medical-scientific community

The website is organised with several sections:

• the patients' rights: information on patients' rights and on the work of patients' associations
• information on conflicts of interest in medicine
• information on health care interventions that work
• how to deal with health information
• rules and methods of clinical research: this section deals with clinical research, with particular emphasis on patients' participation in clinical trials. It also provides information on Research Ethic Committees activities and on the role that consumers can play within these bodies
• patient and consumers' associations: this section of the website is intended to provide information on patients' associations in Italy. Associations are listed by medical specialty and a brief description and contact information is given for each of them. A brief historical background on how these associations developed in Italy is given, together with statistical information on volunteering.
• health data bank

PartecipaSalute website doesn't accept any kind of advertisment.

The PartecipaSalute - created in collaboration with the Italian Cochrane Centre and Zadig Agency - has been officially presented to the public during a press conference in Milan (September 16th, 2004) and it's been online since that date.