Europe is paying a heavy price for chronic diseases (CD): it has been estimated that CD cost EU economies 115 billion € or 0.8% of GDP annually; and this figure does not include the additional loss in terms of lower employment rates and productivity of people living with chronic health problems. However, the aspiration is a health-promoting Europe, free of preventable CD, premature death and avoidable disability could be possible. Initiatives on CD should build on four cornerstones: health promotion and primary prevention as a way to reduce the burden of CD; patient empowerment; tackling functional decline and quality of life as the main consequences of CD, and making health systems sustainable and responsive to the aging of our populations associated with the epidemiological transition (an increase in incidence of CD and extended life expectancy) whose consequence is an increasing prevalence of CD. In this Joint Action, CHRODIS-PLUS, our goal is to support Member States through cross-national initiatives identified in JA-CHRODIS to reduce the burden of CD, while assuring health systems sustainability and responsiveness. CHRODIS-PLUS aims to promote the implementation of policies and practices with demonstrated success in each of the four cornerstones mentioned, in closely monitored implementation experiences that can be validated before scaling them up. Practices to be implemented will be based on the collection of policies, strategies and interventions that started in JA-CHRODIS and in its outputs such as the Integrated Multimorbidity Care Model or the recommendations for Diabetes Quality criteria or national plans.
