The PALS Advisory Board

The concept of a Patient Advocacy Leaders Summit (PALS) was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2002 as a way of bringing together a diverse group of patient advocacy leaders to address skills development and identify ways to collaborate.

Unique to PALS is the concept of patient advocates converging together to share common health policy concerns, forge ways to collaborate to expand influence, refine advocacy skills, and discuss health policy issues with experts and GSK staff.

PALS has gained great momentum in the past six years, leaving a large “footprint” within the advocacy community. Since 2002, close to 5,000 leaders representing over 2,000 organizations in 50 countries have participated in over 75 PALS events around the world.

• National meetings have been conducted in the US in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006 , 2008 and 2009.
• In 2004 , an international meeting of 400 advocates from 26 countries and 38 States was held in the US.
• Meetings have also been held in Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria , Canada, Czech Republic ,Estonia, France ,Germany ,Japan, Latvia , The Netherlands and the UK.
• A total of over 60 Regional PALS (RPALS) were held the US in 2005-2008 and many are being planned for 2009. There have also been many Immunization PALS (IPALS) and a Veteran's PALS (VPALS) in 2008. PALS Webinars , coined ePALS , were introduced in 2008 , and four have been held to date.
• As a direct result of PALS, US State coalitions have formed to advocate collectively for improved access to care & treatment. Some states have even formed PALS Chapters.
• A PALS Community website was launched in 2007 at the specific request of leaders to stay connected, share best practices and have a central clearinghouse for tools and resources for patient advocates.

Critical to the development and success of PALS over the past seven years has been the PALS Advisory Board, which is comprised of a diverse group of representatives from the patient advocacy community. The Board was developed to provide direction on all aspects of the planning, development and execution of the national PALS event.

This includes outlining the format and key themes as well as identifying a venue, specific content, speakers and invitees. In addition, Board members are responsible for helping to execute the event and serve as speakers and/or facilitators, and are charged with being official hosts of the event. GSK realized that in order to ensure that PALS best reflects the needs and issues of patient advocates, it was vital to have a group of patient advocates – the PALS Advisory Board – at the helm of the planning.

To become a member of the PALS Advisory Board, individuals must be proven leaders in the patient advocacy community. Invitations are issued to ten to fifteen individuals, who are invited to serve a one year term.

Some Board members are invited to serve repeat terms, others just one. Determinations are made each year and are based not only on contributions made by each Board member, but also more broadly on the overall diversity of the Board.

It is important to GSK that the Board includes representation from a diverse group of organizations, serving a wide variety of diseases, conditions and populations, from all parts of the country. This diversity of attendees on the Board is consistent with GSK’s goal for PALS attendees.

The Board meets monthly via group teleconferences and convenes once or twice a year in person. Starting in 2007, Board members have taken on additional responsibilities. In addition to planning the national PALS event, they are now working with GSK staff and other Board members more broadly to plan and develop strategies regarding patient advocacy as a whole.

If you have questions about the PALS Advisory Board, please contact PALS staff with an e-mail to pals@gsk.com.

The PALS Community Web site contains links to third-party Web sites on the Internet. These links are provided as a service to individuals interested in more information. These sites are not part of the PALS Community Web site, a GlaxoSmithKline Web site. GlaxoSmithKline does not possess editorial control over the content of the information provided on these external sites and therefore does not warrant their accuracy and completeness.