16th Bled course LEARNING AND TEACHING ABOUT PATIENT EMPOWERMENT IN GENERAL/FAMILY PRACTICE was held in Bled September 18-22, 2007.  The reports - modules from working groups , presentations and coutry reports are available.

Application form for course and hotel accomodation are available in word and printable format.

AIMS OF THE COURSE

The course is aiming at the educators in primary care who are involved in teaching at university or practice level. The aim of the course is to work on “patient empowerment”, a recent development in most Western Health Care Systems. It means that the patient is knowledgeable and informed about his/her disease, is willing and/or obliged to take self-responsibility for his/her health, is involved in medical decision making and whose needs are increasingly respected by health care professionals. Therefore, patient empowerment bridges two core competences of Family Medicine and General Practice: Person centeredness and the holistic approach. Further, patient empowerment can be seen as a new framework for the patient-physician-relationship and also as a measure of quality improvement in health care systems. After the course the participants should - Know the possibilities for and forms of empowering patients- Understand the reasons for the development of patient empowerment (and of case management programs). - Know, how to assess patient empowerment effects in different case management programs- Accept, that patient empowerment is a way to improve quality in health care- Appreciate the difficulties in assessing empowerment effects- Value the increasingly important responsibility of patients for their health.- Recognize, that medical students and trainees should learn about patient empowerment

TIME TABLE

During the course keynote presentations, group work, role-play, fieldwork and discussions will be held. Country reports concerning patient empowerment are welcome. A selected number of presentations will be allocated to be presented to the audience during Saturday morning plenary session. Abstracts should be sent to the address below by July 15, 2007. Course directors will evaluate the contributions and will notify you on the acceptance of the presentation by the August 31. Presentations will be assigned as oral or poster displays.

Keynote lectures will cover

- Patient Enablement and Patient Empowerment - Patients’ right to choose and Patients’ duties regarding their rights – Patients’ empowerment – doctors’ or patients’ duty?- The “expert patient” - Patient enablement and the management of chronic diseases - Patient empowerment and the community - Enabling family physicians to enable patients- How to measure patient empowerment- The role of research in patient empowerment

SOCIAL EVENTS:During conference: trekking, dancing lessons, Bled sightseeing, vine inspection, waterpolo, farewell dinner etc. will take place. The participants will learn some basics in popular dances under the supervision of a professional dance teacher. Appropriate for the beginners and advanced dancers. Traditional waterpolo game between the Slovene participants and colleagues from abroad will take part. You will have the opportunity to visit local family doctors and practices as well social services and institutions.

GENERAL INFORMATION:The course will be held in Bled, Slovenia. Bled is a tourist resort in the Northwest of Slovenia on the border to Italy and Austria and is easily accessible by car, train or plane. To learn more about the venue visit http://www.bled.si/en/ and about the venue hotel Jelovica visit http://www.hotel-jelovica.si/pages/eng/hj_eng.htm. We suggest an early room booking (use the attached form) before July through the main registration office by letting them know you are participating the Bled course: Hotel Jelovica Bled, d.o.o. Cesta svobode 8, 4260 Bled – Slovenija. tel.: +386 (0) 4 5796 000 fax.: 386 (0) 4 5741 550 e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The price of bed & brekfast ranges from 40 to 72 EUR per night per person. Reservation requests will be confirmed on a first come, first served basis. The deadline is July 10^th. In the case that your choice is no longer available an alternative accommodation will be offered by the organisers. The course fee is set at 300 EURO + V.A.T. and will include organisation of the course, course attendance, fieldwork, refreshments during the brakes, lunch during lunch brakes from Tuesday to Friday and the participation in exciting social events including farewell dinner. There is a 40 EURO reduction of the course fee for EURACT members. A limited number of sponsored places is available through the EURACT sponsorship programme. Deadline for application is August 15^th. Details are available at the EURACT website: www.euract.org. Detailed programme will be available on Slovene Family Medicine Society web page http://www.drmed.org/novica.php?id=10483 and through EURACT web-page www.euract.org. Additional information This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . EURO is official currency in Slovenia. All payments can be made in EURO on the site. Hotels, shops and restaurants accept major credit cards. Tours and registration fee will be paid in cash on the spot or you can make a bank transfer to NLB, d.d., Account Holder: Zavod za razvoj druzinske medicine, Poljanski nasip 58, 1000 Ljubljana, IBAN: SI56020450253583120, BIC or SWIFT: LJBASI2X, Communication: EURACT 2007 + NAME OF THE DELEGATE. You will receive a confirmation e-mail regarding the registration and payment. Cancellations received before August 15th 2007, will be refunded minus bank and handling charges. After this date no refunds can be made. The interested participants should send their applications until August 15 in the attached form, also available from http://www.drmed.org/novica.php?id=10483 to the following address:Mrs. Jadranka Torkar, ZD Bled, Mladinska 1, 4260 Bled, Sloveniae-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

phone: +386-4-57-54-000

fax: +386-5-57-54-843