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News announcement17 July 2015Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety5 min read

Registration open - 2nd conference on European Reference Networks (Lisbon, 8-9 October 2015)

Registration open - 2nd conference on European Reference Networks (Lisbon, 8-9 October 2015)

Lisbon, 8-9 October 2015

About the Conference

DG Health and Food Safety has organised the “2nd conference on European Reference Networks (ERN)” on 8-9 October 2015 in Lisbon, Portugal.

This 2nd conference, hosted by the Ministry of Health of Portugal, was included as an event of the Luxembourgish EU Presidency. The conference built on the success of the 1st conference on European Reference Networks, which took place in Brussels June 23rd 2014.

The Conference can be considered as a great success in terms of participation, high quality of the speakers and presentations and substantial commitment and engagement of all the players: politicians, experts, managers, healthcare professionals and providers, patients and other stakeholders.

The conference focused on the implementation of ERN under the Directive 2011/24/EU with the goal to support interested highly specialised networks and centres of expertise across the EU already preparing for the call for ERN in early 2016. Further the draft of the assessment manual and toolbox to be used for the technical assessment of the Network proposals was presented.

Valuable feedback was received and a number of strategic and technical points clarified on issues such as the sustainability , the scope , the key role of Member States, the need avoiding duplication of efforts or fragmentation, and mechanisms for sharing experience between ERNs once they are up and running. The Patient-centricity was stressed throughout all topics.

As main conclusions of the conference can be summed up, that there is a

  • Strong political and strategic support from Member States,
  • High engagement and commitment of all the stakeholders involved,
  • Readiness of many candidates to present high quality ERN proposals,
  • Recognition of the EU added value of the ERNs and the strong will to put the potential of European cooperation regarding highly specialised healthcare into practice,
  • Need of a strategic vision on the scope and likely number of networks that MS should agree upon,
  • Expectation that e-Health tools and services are the major building brick of the ERN,
  • Need to develop a strategy agreed with the Member States on the ERN implementation addressing possible scenarios and the need for sustainability of ERNs in the medium and long term.

More information and details:

Presentations and videos

08 October 2015

WELCOME ADDRESS

Xavier Prats Monné - Director General of DG SANTE
(VIDEO)

ROUNDTABLE I: FRAMEWORK FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF EUROPEAN REFERENCE NETWORKS

Introduction by the Chair: Andrzej Rys - Director Health Systems and Products, European Commission - DG Health and Food Safety
(VIDEO)

ROUNDTABLE II: EUROPEAN REFERENCE NETWORKS: STRATEGIC VALUE FOR THE MEMBER STATES

Chair: Anne Calteux - Ministry of Health Luxembourg
(VIDEO)

Ministerial high level roundtable - ERN a strategic value for the EU citizens and health care systems

  • Paulo Macedo - Minister of Health of Portugal
    (VIDEO)
  • Lydia Mutsch - Minister of Health of Luxembourg
    (VIDEO)
  • Xavier Prats Monné - Director General of European Commission - DG Health and Food Safety
    (VIDEO)

ROUNDTABLE III: NETWORK ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES AND EXPERIENCES: ISSUES, SOLUTIONS AND LESSONS LEARNED

Chair: Peter O'Donnell - Healthcare Journalist at POLITICO
(VIDEO)

ROUNDTABLE IV: ERN AND BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES: GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICES

Chair: Jorge Penedo - Ministry of Health Portugal
(VIDEO)

ROUNDTABLE V: NETWORK CHALLENGES: EHEALTH AND IT SOLUTIONS

Chair: Jaroslaw Waligora, European Commission - DG Health and Food Safety
(VIDEO)

09 October 2015

How to perform a self-assessment and prepare for a strong application?

Chair: Enrique Terol - European Commission - DG Health and Food Safety
(VIDEO)

WORKSHOP 1 - HOW TO PREPARE A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL TO BUILD AN ERN?

Facilitator: Willy Palm - Health Observatory of Health Systems

Experts:

  • Barbara Brunmair
    ExPO-r-Net pilot Network (rare cancers in children)
  • Philippe Ryvlin
    E-Pilepsy pilot Network
  • Luca Sangiorgi
    Coordinator of a network on Rare Skeletal Diseases
  • Reinhard Holl
    Network on rare diabetes in children
  • JLL Vives Corron
    ENERCA network on rare anaemias
  • Louise Clement & Paula Greco - PACE-ERN Consortium

WORKSHOP 2 - HOW TO DEVELOP, USE AND APPRAISE CLINICAL DECISION MAKING TOOLS?

Facilitator:

  • Suszy Lessof
    European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Experts:

WORKSHOP 3 - CLINICAL RESEARCH IN A NETWORK ENVIRONMENT

Facilitator:

  • Irene Glinos
    European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies

Experts:

WORKSHOP 4 - RARE DISEASES NETWORKS: LESSONS LEARNED, GROUPING DISEASES AND PATIENT INVOLVEMENT

Facilitator:

Experts:

  • Kate Bushby
    EUCERD Joint Action, Newcastle University
  • Victoria Hedley
    EUCERD Joint Action, Newcastle University
  • Yann Le Cam
    EURORDIS
  • Teresinha Evangelista
    EUCERD Joint Action, Newcastle University

Details

Publication date
17 July 2015
Author
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety