New COMPAR-EU platform helps to choose best self-management interventions for people with a chronic disease

Within the COMPAR-EU project an online platform is developed to help patients, professionals and policymakers choose the best self-management interventions (SMIs). Researchers compared SMIs of four prevalent chronic deceases – type 2 diabetes, obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure – and ranked them on the basis of effectiveness. The results were made available and easily accessible through the COMPAR-EU platform, developed by a partnership that includes Nivel.

The number of self-management interventions (SMIs) to support patients in their daily management has increased exponentially during the last decades and it is difficult to choose which one works best. Take a look at the COMPAR-EU online platform and find out more about the ranking of the interventions in effectiveness.

Focus on four diseases: type 2 diabetes, obesity, COPD and heart failure

To bridge the gap between the identification of the optimal interventions and their actual use in healthcare practise, the COMPAR-EU platform aims to identify, compare and rank the most effective and cost-efficient self-management interventions (SMIs) for adults in Europe. The focus therein lies with the four high-priority chronic diseases mentioned. The platform offers several decision-making tools adapted to the needs of a wide range of end users, including policy makers, guideline developers, healthcare professionals, patients and industry. Watch our video:

Tailored information for all stakeholders

The COMPAR-EU is developed to offer all stakeholders tailored information on the most suitable self-management interventions:
 

• For patients the platform offers a wide range of patient decision aid tools, like pamphlets and videos, to help them to be involved in their own care. They can also help patients to reach a shared decision with their healthcare professional about treatment that would best fit their preferences and circumstances.
   
• For healthcare professionals the platform offers an extended catalogue of interventions offering scientific information on intervention characteristics, questionnaires and other tools to measure outcomes in self-management research. It also contains an interactive summary that gives access to relevant outcomes and related evidence of the four chronic diseases. 
   
• For researchers and clinicians the repositories of RCTs, tools and interventions are helpful: under ‘Repositories' three ways are presented in which the interventions are categorised by effectiveness taxonomy, by measure outcomes (PROMs and PREMs) and by randomized control trials.
   
• For policymakers and managers the platform offers decision making aid: they can take notice of the pros and cons of each intervention, using criteria like ease of implementation, required skills from professionals and usability for patients. This makes the choisemaking for a certain intervention much more transparent. For policymakers and healthcare professionals who want to implement the SMIs of their choice in their own context, the platform also contains the relevant research results to support their choice of intervention: the Network Meta-Analysis (NMA; analysis of the most effective SMIs), the Cost Effectiveness and Contextual Factors.

About the COMPAR-EU project

The COMPAR-EU project was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and consisted of 8 collaborating partners: Fundación Avedis Donabedian (FAD), Spain; European Patients´ Forum (EPF); Institute for Medical Technology Assessment (iMTA), The Netherlands; Nivel (Netherlands Institute for Health Services), The Netherlands; Fundació Privada Institut de Recerca de l´Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (IR-HSCSP), Spain; OptiMedis AG Consulting Organization, Germany; University of Ioannina (UOI), Greece.