1st Conference on European Reference Networks

Brussels

About the Conference

Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare strengthens cooperation between highly specialised healthcare providers across the European Union by the establishment of a system of European Reference Networks.

Establishing European Reference Networks of highly specialised healthcare providers represents a clear added value for the EU and will help to provide affordable, high-quality and cost-effective healthcare to patients with conditions requiring a particular concentration of resources or expertise, and to improve these patients' access to the best possible expertise and care available in the EU for their condition.

The legal framework, as foreseen in the Directive 2011/24/EU, was adopted on 10th of March by the Commission, after an exhaustive consultation process with national authorities, experts, and stakeholders, providing for the criteria and conditions that Networks and its Members shall fulfil and for the establishment and evaluation of future Networks.

DG SANCO organised a conference on European Reference Network on 23rd of June in Brussels which brought together highly specialised healthcare providers, experts, national authorities, decision–makers, and independent bodies with experience in the assessment and evaluation of healthcare providers.

The aim of the conference was to discuss the state of play on the organisation of highly specialised networks and their members across the EU and to look into the next steps of the deployment process, in preparation for the forthcoming call for European Reference Networks in 2015.

Read the:

• Agenda of the Conference
• Conference announcement

Report: highlights and conclusions

• Full report

Presentations

MORNING PLENARY SESSION

Welcome: Dr Andrzej Rys - Director Health Care Systems, DG Health and Consumers:

Keynote Speakers

• Only Connect: What ICT networks can do for society?
  Robert Madelin
  Director-General for DG CONNECT: Communications Networks, Content and Technology
• Complex Systems and Networks
  Yamir Moreno
  Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI). University of Zaragoza

ROUNDTABLE: Highly specialised healthcare: framework for the establishment of ERN
Chair Dr Paolo G. Casali - Instituto Nazionale Tumori, Italy:

• Past, present and future of centres of expertise and European reference Networks
  Till Voigtländer
  Clinical Institute of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
• The importance of sharing expertise and the challenge to manage the exchange of knowledge in highly specialised healthcare.
  Josep Maria Borras
  Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC)
• Research priorities and Networks
  Irene Norstedt and Philippe Cupers
  European Commission - DG Research and Innovation
• The ERN model: Criteria and conditions for Networks and providers. Implementation of Networks: organisation framework
  Enrique Terol
  European Commission - DG Health and Consumers

Session A: Highly specialised healthcare for low prevalence,rare and complex diseases

Session A-1:The view of the stakeholders organisations
Chair by Dr Andrzej Rys - Director Health Care Systems, DG SANCO:

• The view of the professionals
  Edwin Borman
  European Union of Medical Specialists
• The view of the managers
  Marianne Olsson
  European Health Management Association
• The view of the patients
  Nicola Bedlington
  European Patients Forum

Session A-2: National models
Chair: Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat - Public health practice and policy of EUPHA:

• Specialised Commissioning Services in the NHS of England
  Edmund Jessop
  Specialised Commissioning Team, NHS England UK
• National Specialized Medical Care (NSMC) in Sweden
  Lennart Christiansson
  National Board of Health and Welfare of Sweden
• The Portuguese model of Centres of Reference
  Jorge Penedo
  Ministry of Health of Portugal

Session A-3: Networking Experiences (Networks pilots funded by EC)

• The Paediatric Cancer network-Expor-Net
  Ruth Ladenstein
  Expo-R-Net
• The refractary- epilepsy Network
  Philippe Ryvlin
  E-epilepsy Network
• European Network for Rare and Congenital Anaemias: ENERCA
  Joan Lluis Vives Corron
  ENERCA

Session B: Quality, clinical criteria and performance assessment

Session B–1: Clinical and professional criteria
Chair: Ms Flaminia Macchia - Director for European Public Affairs, EURORDIS

• EURORDIS Photo Contest 2013
  Flaminia Macchia
  Director for European Public Affairs, EURORDIS
• Enhancing medical professionalism, interdisciplinarity and quality of health care through clinical practice guideline development
  Ina Kopp
  German Association of the Scientific Medical Societies´Institute of Medical Knowledge-Management (AWMF-IMWi) at Philipps-University, Marburg. Germany
• Establishment of clinical criteria: Best Practices, clinical guidelines and patient pathways
  Judith Richardson
  Clinical Pathways NICE. United Kingdom
• Assessment of the use of EU clinical guidelines in a Network environment (experiences)
  Marco Pierotti
  The Lombardy Cancer Network (ROL). Italy

Session B-2: Accreditation, certification and evaluation
Chair: Nathalie Chaze - DG Health and Consumers

• Recognition and approval of highly specialised hospital services in Denmark
  Stine Jønson
  Danish Health and Medicines Authority. Denmark
• The healthcare accreditation model of France
  Fabienne Menot
  HAS, France
• Accreditation of Hospitals in Poland
  Barbara Kutryba
  National Centre for Quality Assessment in Health Care (NCQA) Poland
• Independent assessment/accreditation models
  Sébastien Audette
  Accreditation Canada International

Closing remarks, Conclusions and call for action
Dr Andrzej Rys - Director Health Care Systems, DG Health and Consumers