Jane Giudice is a 58-year-old, married woman, and mother of two, a citizen of Malta. A banker by profession, she is presently employed at Dar tal-Providenza, a residential home for persons with disability, as a Personal Assistant to the Director, Administrator and Services Coordinator of this highly acclaimed and recognised organisation. Last year, The European Parliament announced that Dar tal-Providenza won the European Citizen’s Prize 2021. The Chancellery acknowledged that Dar tal-Providenza has always provided homes with a family-like environment for persons with disability who could not live with their family and that the ethos of the organisation is to ensure quality community care.

In her teenage years Jane started to experience widespread and migrating pain in all four quadrants of the body. Back in the 1980’s, Fibromyalgia, and symptom manifestations thereof, were hardly recognised by health care professionals, which led to patients rarely receiving the necessary therapeutic treatment. Jane recalls that it took many years to get a diagnosis, however, thanks to the World Wide Web, as a young patient she could start to understand her medical conditions better and adapt to a new lifestyle. Jane feels that as a patient, together with clinicians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, and health care professionals, digital health platforms and solutions, enable her to manage her health better. Recently she has also been diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis and other comorbidities.

Jane is very actively involved in patient advocacy and patient engagement at national level in the health and disability sector, at present serving as Secretary within Arthritis and Rheumatism Association Malta on a voluntary basis. As a volunteer she was a founder member of National Patients Organisation Malta, whose main objectives and mission is to raise awareness about the Patients’ Charter. She also contributed as the spokesperson for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Association based in Malta. Jane has contributed to the first phase of the Gravitate Health project by participating in two online Delphi surveys in May 2021. She has participated in multiple webinars, face-to-face conferences, relative-to-patient engagement, and digital health. She was invited by the Novartis branch in Malta, to partake in the European Patients Innovation Summit (EPIS) in 2019, which was held in Malta, and subsequently EPIS 2020 & 2021 virtually. Similarly, she is a delegate at the annual European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) and European Patients Forum (EPF) Congresses. Presently she is undertaking an online course, namely The Open Classroom organised by European Patients’ Academy on Therapeutic Innovation (EUPATI) in Research and Development of Medicines. In 2019, she was registered in the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) pool of patient experts database. The aim of this initiative, which was developed to the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), is to strengthen the role and voice of patients in activities at strategic and operational levels.

As a patient and patient advocate, she needs to keep abreast of developments in digital health including e-health, m-health and medical apps. Her motivation and keen interest relating to digital health is in view of the 21st century needs in healthcare and the importance of cross-border healthcare. We are living in a highly advanced technological era, a very fast paced life, and patients must be more aware of their patient rights and responsibilities. She firmly believes that one must also keep in mind that through proper management of digital health skills, one and all will be contributing to help save the earth, reduce travelling, reduce pollution, and improve the air we breathe.

Digital health and the G-Lens platform is the way forward.