Since 2015 Lise-Lott has been Chairman of the Swedish Blood Cancer Association, previously Chairman of the Blood Cancer Society in Stockholm and now the president of Myeloma Patients Europe (MPE). Lise-Lott is very active in policy-related issues within the Swedish cancer care area. She focuses on access to new drugs for haematological disorders (especially myeloma), reimbursement, pricing, patient influence in clinical trials and health technology assessment decisions. She works actively to raise the status of expert patient advocates in Sweden.

Lise-Lott has prior experience from work as a physiotherapist and various management assignments in private healthcare. In 2011, she was diagnosed with essential thrombocythemia, and her father was diagnosed with myeloma in 2009.

Get to know our new MPE President, Lise-Lott Eriksson.

What are your motivations for being an MPE board member?

Lise-Lott: I think MPE is a very important organisation for member organisations since it gives such good opportunities for educational programmes to patient advocates. Also, when we get together with member organisations, we learn so much from each other. MPE provides possibilities for everyone to get involved, and being part of the board is one of them.

What are your main goals for MPE as President?

Lise-Lott: I would say improving access to innovative treatments for myeloma patients. This is so important; to find a cure for patients or to be able to improve quality of life for myeloma and AL amyloidosis patients. I’m optimistic about what the future holds, especially patient involvement in HTA, in research and in clinical trials. This is mainly what I want to improve and to be a part of.

You are the chair of the Swedish Blood Cancer Association. How do you think a European umbrella organisation like MPE can help members at a national level?

Lise-Lott: I think organisations like MPE can help a lot; I mentioned at the last MPE Masterclass an issue about patient involvement in HTA and how MPE can help with educational programmes and resources on how to manage this at a national level. MPE helps improve and work out these kinds of issues in different countries. It is hard for a national organisation to know how to work with these issues, and MPE makes it easier.

What is the value for your organisation of being part of MPE?

Lise-Lott: I would say networking with all the other organisations, of course. I think MPE is the key element that brings us all together. As I said, MPE improves the way of working in different areas of concern like patient involvement and shared decision-making. MPE helps collect all these other findings that we wouldn’t be able to do by ourselves and organise the networking between organisations.

Finally, what is your vision for myeloma and AL amyloidosis over the coming years?

Lise-Lott: Of course, that would be to find a cure for myeloma and AL amyloidosis patients, but if that isn’t possible, find a way for patients to live a good life with treatment and access to this treatment that will help them improve their quality of life.