On 23 November last year, there was a meeting in Buenos Aires of the Scientific Committee on Managing Heart Failure in the Elderly. It was organised by the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina and coordinated by Dr Schiavone, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dr Ferrari, director of the postgraduate course on Senior Management of Quality in Health Services. Also taking part was Dr Arrighi, deputy director of the UIC Barcelona Albert J Joel Institute of Public Health and Patients with a talk entitled: “The active role of patients in the health system: The strategic importance".
Dr. Navarro, director of the Institute, noted that “the trend for patients to participate in decision-making is ever more prevalent and must be viewed as an essential source of knowledge when analysing the preferences and values of people suffering from illness and their families".
For her part, Dr. Arrighi concluded that "this is one of the challenges for the Institute and one of the essential tasks that we hope to carry out in Latin America to promote the new role of patients in the health system".
Finally, Dr. Ferrari felt that "this is an emerging issue in Argentina which is necessary to approach in an in-depth manner in the hope that it will have a huge impact at both a political and social level".
