Partner News
EULAR – European League Against Rheumatism
The European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) is the European umbrella organisation representing scientific societies, health professional associations, and organisations for people with RMDs. EULAR aims to reduce the burden of RMDs on individuals and society and to improve the treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation of RMDs.
Since 2010, EULAR organises an annual conference in Brussels around the annual event of World Arthritis Day (12 October). The aim of these events is to bring together the RMD community, EU and national policymakers as well as a number of stakeholders to discuss relevant policy issues affecting people with RMDs and other chronic conditions.
2017’s event took place on October 17th under the theme “The future of health research and innovation after horizon 2020”.
Joop van Griensven, PAE’s president attended this conference, which focused on what could be the future of research after the elections of 2019.
From DG Research, we heard what could be the ground rules of medical research under Horizon 2020 and beyond, detailing about lessons, achievements and future
developments. From the WHO, we found out that the link between research and work will be a key issue and that data on that subject would be available soon.
The research will develop on more patient-orientated medication because of the new insights. It will be less focused on the disease diagnosed, and more on the molecular diagnosis of the patient. This would include a more multidisciplinary approach towards the patients.
The afternoon was organised in group workshops and in the subsequent presentations of the results from these groups, we learned that every group highlighted the importance of involving patients right from the beginning of the project – and also on the need to support patient organizations to realize this important task.
Besides this important insight, together with the SIP partners, we were able to engage in networking with the conference participants and succeeded in getting in contact with DG SANTE and WHO representatives. All and all, a well-spent day to benefit PAE and its members.
You can find the details of the agenda of the meeting here or watch the video of the conference available on YouTube.
