16. 05. 2019 – 16. 05. 2019 | Berlin
The first German Local Stakeholder Forum (LSF) of the Joint Action “Innovative Partnership for Action Against Cancer” (iPAAC) was held in Berlin on 16 May 2019, within the framework of the forum “Brennpunkt Onkologie”.
“Brennpunkt Onkologie” is a forum for discussing health policy topics. It is organised and hosted by the German Cancer Society. Attendees are representatives from German stakeholders in health policy, such as federal ministries, social health insurances, scientific societies and representatives from the health industry.
Speakers of the first German Local Stakeholder Forum under the topic “What prospects does European policy offer for oncological care provision?” were:
- PD Dr. Simone Wesselmann, Head of Certification Department at German Cancer Society and Work Package (WP) 10 Leader of iPAAC (on behalf of Dr. Karen Budewig, German Ministry of Health)
- Peggy Richter, Research Associate at Technical University of Dresden and responsible for Task 2 Patient Pathways of WP 10
- Dr. Susanne Weg-Remers, Head of Cancer Information Service at the German Cancer Research Centre Heidelberg and German member of WP 5 of iPAAC
- Dr. Stefan Schreck, Head of Unit for Health Programme and Chronic Diseases at Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission
To start with, Simone Wesselmann gave an overview of the current and past initiatives of the European Commission which are aiming at improving and harmonising oncological care across Europe, such as the European Code Against Cancer, the European Partnership for Action Against Cancer or the Joint Actions CanCon and JARC. She outlined the importance of these initiatives and their impact on implementing health care programmes on the national level (e.g. National Cancer Plans, screening programmes). At the end of her talk she presented goals and partners as well as the content of the different WP of iPAAC.
Afterwards Peggy Richter gave an insight into the work of WP 10 of iPAAC. Within WP 10, different instruments with importance for providing and ensuring high quality oncological care (e.g. Patient Pathways, Quality Indicators, Patient Reported Outcome Measurements) are being developed. Additionally, a set of generic and tumour-specific requirements for the setup of Comprehensive Cancer Care Networks (CCCN) is defined. Finally, CCCNs including the developed instruments will be implemented at two pilot sites (Berlin and Wroclaw). Mrs. Richter explained, how the work on WP 10 proceeds and outlined the collaboration with other WPs (such as WP 8 or 7).
Susanne Weg-Remers then presented the content and partners of WP 5 of iPAAC. This WP aims to improve cancer prevention strategies across Europe. The different tasks of the WP therefore analyse and develop strategies for early detection of cancer, population-based screening programmes and health promotion. Mrs. Weg-Remers lay an emphasis on the German contribution to WP 5, i.e. the development and testing of information material for patients and physicians concerning familial predisposition for breast and ovarian cancer, thus improving the health literacy regarding this topic.
To sum up, Stefan Schreck presented future strategies of the European Commission (EC) to improve health care within the Member States of the European Union. He outlined the importance of the implementation of the results of the Joint Actions. One future priority of the EC will be the promotion of “Best practices”, a programme that allows the transfer of well implemented health care strategies from one Member State to another.
Photo gallery
