Europeans Deserve Personalised Healthcare

The European Patients’ Rights Day recently marked its 20th anniversary in Brussels, with a call to make personalised prevention accessible, equitable and citizen-centred across Europe. Daniela Quaggia and Mariano Votta of Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network discussed the importance of this issue.

The idea of placing patients’ rights at the centre of European health policies was still far from mainstream twenty years ago.

Today, after two decades of civic engagement, institutional dialogue and advocacy across Europe, that vision is more relevant than ever.

The XX European Patients’ Rights Day, held on 12 May 2026 at the European Parliament in Brussels, represented not only an important anniversary but also an opportunity to reflect on how healthcare is changing.

The event gathered representatives of European institutions, patient organisations, researchers, healthcare professionals and civil society from across Europe to discuss a significant challenge for the future of healthcare systems: personalised prevention.

More than 40 participants from 18 countries attended in person, while over 150 requests for online participation arrived from 34 countries, confirming the growing relevance of this topic in the European public debate.

Personalised prevention must become a right for all citizens, not a privilege accessible only to a few.

This means ensuring that innovation — from genomic screening to digital risk assessment tools and personalised interventions — is implemented according to principles of equity, accessibility, transparency and citizens’ empowerment.

From a civic perspective, this transition raises both opportunities and risks.

Scientific and technological progress can significantly improve prevention strategies and help anticipate diseases before they occur.

Yet innovation alone is not enough.

Without informed participation, health literacy and public trust, personalised prevention risks widening inequalities instead of reducing them.

Citizens and patients cannot remain passive recipients of innovation; they must be recognised as active partners in healthcare governance, research and policy-making.

This principle has guided Cittadinanzattiva and Active Citizenship Network since the adoption of the European Charter of Patients’ Rights in 2002, where the Right to Preventive Measures was identified as the very first fundamental patients’ right.

The 2026 edition of the European Patients’ Rights Day focused precisely on the evolution of that right.

Twenty years later, prevention is no longer limited to traditional public health campaigns or early diagnosis programmes.

It increasingly includes personalised approaches based on individual biological, environmental, behavioural and socio-economic profiles, such as aging studies that consider various factors.

Such transformation requires not only scientific investment but also strong democratic safeguards capable of ensuring equal opportunities for all European citizens.

The event built upon the outcomes of the EU-funded PROPHET project, coordinated by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

Its recently published Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda identifies concrete priorities for implementing personalised prevention across Europe, including health literacy, data governance, citizen participation and equitable access to innovation.

During the institutional debate, MEP Brando Benifei stressed the unsustainable social and economic burden of preventable diseases.

Participants from the European Patients’ Forum, the European Society of Human Genetics, EP PerMed, EFPIA and the European Commission discussed how Europe can avoid the risk of a “two-speed” healthcare system, where only some citizens benefit from personalised prevention tools and services.

The twentieth anniversary also represented a moment of civic pride for Cittadinanzattiva and Active Citizenship Network.

Since 2007, the European Patients’ Rights Day has become a recognised platform for dialogue between institutions and civil society, celebrated every year not only in Brussels but also through hundreds of local initiatives promoted by patient and civic organisations across Europe.

At a time when European healthcare systems face growing demographic, economic and social pressures, reaffirming patients’ rights means reaffirming a vision of healthcare centred on dignity, participation and equality.

Personalised prevention can become one of the most powerful tools to improve public health in the coming years — but only if Europe ensures that no citizen is left behind, particularly in terms of access to liver disease treatment and prevention.

The celebration of the XX European Patients’ Rights Day event was kindly hosted by MEP Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy) and endorsed by the MEPs Interest Group “European Patients’ Rights & Cross-Border Healthcare”.

It was realised in the framework of the EU-funded project PROPHET and made possible also thanks to the unconditional support of MSD, Redcare Pharmacy, and Viatris, and considering the ongoing research on dementia.