By Lukas Radbruch, President EAPC 2007-2011
Presented at the General Assembly of the EAPC, 11 - 12 March 2010, Lisbon, Portugal
EAPC membership status
Two new national associations have joined the EAPC for 2010, increasing the number of member associations to 44 in 26 countries. The Finnish Association for Palliative Medicine and the Czech Society of Palliative Medicine are welcome as new members. EAPC will approach new palliative care and hospice associations in all European countries proactively and invite them to join.
EAPC White Papers
The EAPC Board of Directors has stated in the last board meetings that the collaboration with the national associations should be intensified, offering the member associations more opportunities to contribute to EAPC work as well as communicating their needs to EAPC, and consequently tailoring the EAPC work according to these needs. The EAPC White Paper on Standards and Norms, published in the European Journal for Palliative Care, and available on the EAPC Web, has been constructed as a consensus procedure with the national associations, and future white papers of the EAPC will take up this idea to foster the collaboration. The EAPC encourages the National Associations to translate this document into their language. Associations interested to translate and eventually publish the paper in their national journal shall contact the head office. To facilitate and standardize the translation procedures the Board of Directors has approved the EAPC internal rules for translation. Always in the series of White Papers the EAPC Board has published a framework for the use of Sedation in Palliative care, intended to provide guidance on how to prepare organise initiate, monitor and evaluate the sedation procedure. This paper published in Palliative Medicine is also available for download online on the EAPC Web. A further White Paper on Family carers in Palliative are has been finalised and will be published soon.
EAPC congresses
The 11th Congress of the EAPC in June 2009 in Vienna was a huge success, thanks to the chairs Friedemann Nauck, Phil Larkin and Hans-Georg Kress. Approximately 3000 participants enjoyed the talks and discussions, with experts and colleagues from all over Europe. The opening speech of the Swedish Queen impressed all participants, and also did lead to much recognition in the media, providing a great chance for EAPC to increase public awareness of palliative and hospice care. Another highlight was the closing lecture of David Oliviere, supported by a special theatre performance of school children, enacting scenes from the life of some patients of St. Christopher’s Hospice, whom they had met in their school project group. The overall success of the congress was also evident in the financial contribution, which has enabled the EAPC to achieve a balanced budget.
Right now the preparations of the 6th Research Congress in Glasgow this June are well under way. The Research Congresses, thanks to the dedicated and engaged lead of Stein Kaasa, Chair of the Research Network, have become internationally renowned meetings of excellence, offering new research insights and high-quality discussions with the experts in the field.
While the research congress is still being prepared, the 12th Congress of EAPC in Lisbon is already in preparation. The congress in June 2011 is headlined “Reaching out”, referring not only to the position at the edge of the Atlantic, but more to the need for European palliative care to reach out to other countries, other fields of medicine and other organisations. The congress programme will include much input from the EU-funded research collaborative, as well as contributions from Africa and South America.
The venue for the 13th Congress has not yet been chosen, and member associations are invited to submit a bid if they are interested.
EAPC Task Forces
The task forces provide steady input to EAPC and produce valuable guidance in all areas of palliative care. The Task Force on Physicians Education has produced a curriculum for postgraduate education in palliative care, which will be very useful for national associations that are trying to establish palliative care as a medical specialty or an academic subject in their country. The Taskforce on Palliative Care in Children has produced a Spanish and Italian translation of the Solid Facts Booklet, available on the EAPC Website. New taskforces on physiotherapy and spiritual care have been accepted.
Specific acknowledgement should be given to the Task Force for Central Eastern European and Former Soviet Union countries (Chair Katalin Hegedus) which produces a monthly email newsletter that is being distributed in English and Russian language to a mailing list of 2500 readers in 48 countries since 2005.
Detailed information would be beyond the scope of this report, but can be found on the EAPC website.
EAPC Research Network
The EAPC Research Network, chaired by Stein Kaasa, has been growing and expanding continuously, embarking on new research work and consolidating existing projects. The research network is collaborating closely with the European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC) and with the newly found European Palliative Care Research Centre (PRC) in Trondheim. Guidelines for treatment of pain, cachexia and depression in advanced cancer as well as new assessment and classification systems for cancer pain and cachexia are in progress. The research centre will also set up an international PhD programme that will offer the participation in a high quality academic education.
EAPC and the European Union
The contribution of EAPC to European research collaboratives is increasing. EAPC is involved in several projects funded by the 6th and 7th Framework programmes of the European Commission. The European Palliative Care Research Collaborative and the PRISMA collaborative are publishing results from their work packages. The new programme Access to Opioid Medication in Europe (ATOME) has taken up its work recently after successful negotiations with the European Commission. It will aim to facilitate access to opioid medications in 12 Eastern and South European countries. It also offers a chance for EAPC to collaborate closely with the World Health Organisation and other international partners, who are contributing to the project. With the International Harm Reduction Association and the European Harm Reduction Network two major harm reduction organisations are also involved in the Collaborative, initiating the collaboration with these organisations and to join forces of palliative care and harm reduction for advocacy. More information can be found on the website www.atome-project.eu.
November 2009 has also seen the kick-off meeting of the European Partnership Against Cancer. EAPC had applied as a participant of the consortium for the partnership and had been selected. We will contribute to the areas of “Applying best healthcare approaches in practice - identification and dissemination of good practice”, “Cooperation and coordination in cancer research” and “Benchmarking process – providing the comparable information necessary for policy and action”.
EAPC will contribute to the implementation of palliative care in the European Partnership as a necessary part of comprehensive and integrative cancer care. The EAPC will share information on all its’ activities as well as its’ resources with other organisations participating in the European Partnership, providing guidance and recommendations on palliative care for service providers, stakeholders and decision makers.
Budapest Commitments
By last year 23 collective members from 19 Countries and also the WHO Collaborating Centre, Barcelona, Spain had presented a commitment. In 2010 year Ireland has joined. All Associations have recently been invited to send an update about their projects, which will be published on the EAPC Website and the other associations not yet involved, where encouraged to join with a commitment.
Collaboration with other organisations
The collaboration with the European Society of Medical Oncologists (ESMO) was intensified in a survey on the regulations and restrictions preventing cancer patients access to medication to relieve strong cancer pain. Lead investigator Nathan Cherny and experts from ESMO and EAPC collected data from 21 Eastern European countries and 20 Western European countries to evaluated the formulary availability (lists of allowed opioid drugs) for the management of strong pain (opioid analgesics) for each country, the cost of opioid medication to patients and the regulatory barriers that can make it more difficult, if not impossible, for cancer patients and their doctors to get access to these medications in a timely manner. The report was published recently in the Annals of Oncology, and already is receiving wide-spread interest.
EAPC continues its collaboration with the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA), the IAHPC (International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care), as well as with other international organisations. A new collaboration with the WHO Collaborating Centre in Barcelona, Spain led by Xavier Gomez Batiste has been launched in 2009. And a Memorandum of understanding is being set up with Alzheimer Europe, acknowledging the palliative care needs of this patient group.
EAPC Website
The EAPC website is one of the main assets of our organisation, and has become a renowned resource centre for palliative care professionals in Europe. The new website of EAPC is in preparation, offering the full range of actual information and background material in all areas of palliative care. The design and structure of the new website will enable user to find what they want fast and easily. Until transfer to the new site is complete, the existing site (www.eapcnet.org) will be available for information and support. We hope that the new website will be used even more than the present site, and we invite you to participate in online discussions and to provide feedback.
Reaching out
Similar to previous years, the preparation of this report brings to mind the continuous input and support that you as members of EAPC have provided to the organisation. The guidelines and publications from the task forces, the output of the congresses, the content of the website are all dependent on your input and work. It makes me feel great to be part of such a vibrant and growing association. The success of our organisation is also being felt with the interest from other organisations and associations in collaboration with EAPC. However, I would hold it that EAPC has to be even more proactive in collaboration. Palliative care is still seen as cancer-related by many experts, and EAPC is not visible enough in some parts of Europe. We have to reach out, from cancer to non-cancer patients, from west to east, from developed to resource poor countries. We should reach out across the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic, towards Central Asia, and link forces with our neighbours. The EAPC board has taken up closer collaboration with the African Palliative Care Association, and the 12th Congress in Lisbon will feature links to Latin America as well as to Northern African countries. We have to increase the EAPC contribution to the development of palliative care in Eastern Europe, and set up close communication with the national associations in this region. The slogan of the congress in Lisbon is “Reaching out” and we should reach out to all those who want to help in the improvement and development of palliative care and hospice care in Europe and beyond.
Thank you all for your continuous commitment!