The upcoming ESMO Congress in Madrid will host a roundtable on ‘Personalised Medicine: Translational Continuing Education Initiative’, organised by the Brussels-based European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM).

The meeting at the Congress will be the fifth such roundtable conducted by EAPM and the interaction represents one key aspect of the Alliance’s stated goals - to engage with the medical community whenever possible, and at every level.

The meeting on 10 September in the Spanish capital will take into account the fact that new discoveries - generated from a deeper understanding of the human genome - is driving a paradigm shift in medicine from a one-size-fits-all approach to one which is personalised and targeted to the individual.

This shift is rapidly progressing in oncology but is slower in other areas. And, while there are many barriers to innovation in clinical practice - including market access, scientific, and/or regulatory challenges - the biggest challenge across the healthcare system is continuing medical education.

Education should be a top priority when it comes to modernising healthcare systems, yet most educational programmes are less than optimal (an area that EAPM has already begun to address through its Summer Schools held  2016 and earlier this year).

To solve this educational gap, the Alliance proposes a multi-phase project to develop market-specific and disease-area educational pilots that can be eventually scaled up to offer broad educational programmes.

ecancer editor and EAPM co-chair Gordon McVie, as well as the Alliance executive director Denis Horgan, will get the roundtable underway, setting out the framework before a question and answer session.

This, and later Q and As, are designed to make the meeting as interactive as possible.

The elements and phases of the project to be set out at the Madrid meeting are educational strategy development and needs assessment White Paper.

In this phase of the project, EAPM would develop a comprehensive White Paper on the continuing educational landscape in Europe and what needs to change to facilitate the adoption of personalised medicine. 

It will be based on feedback from experts in the field, policy documents, and background research to fully understand the gaps that exist which are impacting the delivery of care. 

Among other topics covered over the course of the day will be ‘Incentives, Screening and Access in Healthcare’.

EAPM realises that ‘where is the value?’ is a big question in many areas of life.

While most people accept that innovation is good for citizenry, many question the perceived high prices charged by pharmaceutical companies for certain medicines - prices that many Member State healthcare systems cannot afford.

The knock-on effect, of course, is that many patients are denied novel drugs and/or treatments, leading to a lower quality of life and sometimes avoidable death.

On the other hand, life expectancy in Europe is going up-and-up, largely as a result of innovation in the healthcare sector, alongside better lifestyles and diets.

EAPM believes that Europe should make no mistake about the correlation between wealth and health. Studies – at least one conducted on behalf of the European Commission – have repeatedly shown that the benefits of improved public health extend beyond simply reducing healthcare costs.

The facts are that better health makes a positive contribution to the productivity of citizens.

Therefore, a key element of this roundtable will be coming up with concrete recommendations about how Europe can integrate all the new science into healthcare systems, with the ultimate goal of allowing citizens’ access to all preventative and personalised care.

When it comes to value, such a situation would boost the standing of the EU, pharmaceutical companies and the medical arena as a whole.

High-profile expert speakers in this section will include Denis Lacombe, who is director general, EORTC, Francesco Pignatti, the Head of Office at Human Medicines Evaluation for the European Medicines Agency, Nuria Malats, the leader of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, and Marteen Ijzerman, who is Dean of Health and Biomedical Technology, at the faculty Science and Technology, University of Twente.

They will be joined by Tit Albreht, from the Institute of Public Health in Slovenia, Lydia Makaroff, Director, of the European Cancer Patients Coalition, Peter Kapitein, of Inspire2Live, and Natacha Bolanos, from the Spanish Group for Cancer Patients.

EAPM’s Denis Horgan said in the run up to the event "Once again the Alliance is delighted to be holding a key roundtable at the ESMO Congress."

"The focus on ongoing education and the question of what constitutes value from all perspectives are both key to promoting the full integration of personalised medicine into healthcare systems, for the benefit of all patients across Europe."

Source: EAPM