Recommendations and Proposals Made for the Belgian National Plan for Rare Diseases

The Fund for Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs to the Roi Baudouin Foundation has been mandated by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to develop a plan of political action on rare diseases. In response of that, the fund has prepared a document, which contains an initial set of recommendations and proposals of measures to achieve such a programme. There are 11 measures which are expected to be implemented in short term. They are divided into several different policy areas, namely organization of specific clinical skills to improve health outcomes for patients, codification and identification of rare diseases, promoting awareness of the problem, informing stakeholders and empowerment of patients, access to diagnosis, medication, treatment and care of patients.