ERS participated in the fifth annual European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Conference on Tuesday (28 March, 2017), which this year focussed on innovation, guidelines and screening in lung cancer.
More than 130 high-level delegates and speakers attended the Brussels event, which aimed to encourage debate among stakeholders on how to gain political support, generate awareness, and highlight the need for European recommendations and guidelines for lung cancer screening. The importance of meaningful collaboration and engagement with patients was emphasised throughout the event.
ERS President Elect Dr Mina Gaga, who participated in the afternoon session on ‘the supporting role of politicians and policy makers’, summarises her views on what is required to affect change at European level: “In lung cancer we need to advocate for strong primary prevention-based public health measures such as strict enforcement of comprehensive smoking bans.
“It is also important to emphasise prevention, combined with early diagnosis through effective image-based screening, and management in multidisciplinary teams (MDT). Further, I would underline the importance of moving towards a patient-centred and organ specific approach including MDT. Respiratory physicians have a deep knowledge of the lung and it is vital they are an integral part of the prevention, management and care of lung cancer."
Conclusions from the event highlighted the key role of politicians and policy makers in facilitating collaboration between stakeholders and patients, to enable a more patient centred approach that will drive medical innovation, enable earlier diagnosis and improve patient outcomes. This dialogue will be continued at the EAPM’s Congress later this year, which will broadly discuss the actions needed to integrate personalised medicine more successfully across Europe.