4th CEE Patient Engagement Forum

This year, the 4th Central & Eastern Europe Patient Engagement Forum took place in Bucharest, Romania, on September 25-26, 2025. The CEE Patient Engagement Annual Forum convenes industry and patient leaders from 12 countries to exchange best practices and address collective challenges and opportunities in patient engagement. This year’s Forum agenda was built around three major themes:

• Making the case for health in times of uncertainty.

• Access and patient involvement in Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

• Emerging system challenges and the future of patient engagement.

During the session on strengthening the voice of patients in HTA across CEE countries, ELPA President Marko Korenjak addressed possible solutions to ensure collaboration in the region becomes more structured and impactful. With the EU HTA Regulation now in force, the moment has come to align national processes with European-level recommendations — while still respecting local realities.

Some of the reflections he shared included:

• Leveraging Joint Clinical Assessments (JCA), freely available to all, to avoid duplication and optimize scarce resources.

• Building stronger regional collaboration so that no patient voice remains isolated within national silos.

• Establishing sustainable models for NGOs to participate meaningfully in HTA, supported by predictable funding streams.

• Sharing learnings, resources, and advocacy tools across borders to reinforce each other’s impact.

It was inspiring to see how the Forum connected broader policy priorities — from the Critical Medicines Act and the European Health Data Space to local best practices highlighted in TEDx-style case studies. This diversity of perspectives demonstrates both the richness of experience in the region and the urgency of creating a long-term, sustainable vision for patient engagement. The discussions in Bucharest reaffirmed a simple truth: by working together, CEE countries can amplify patient voices, strengthen health systems, and secure better access to innovation for all patients.