The past two months since our last newsletter have been particularly active – you will have immediately noticed our new logo and a new website has been created: www.epposi.org.

We also have new offices and have been working to advance our programmes in Chronic Conditions Management, Health Technology Assessment, Innovation in Healthcare and Rare Diseases.

In addition, we held a successful dinner debate at the European Parliament and are preparing for our Stakeholder Day on 19 May.

New logo and website

Working with Brussels-based communications and design agency, MCI Benelux, Epposi  unveiled its new brand identity at the dinner debate at the European Parliament on 3 May.  

With a new tagline ‘Partnering for Healthcare Policy’ approved in an online vote by the members, the colour blocks in the new logo represent the three pillars of Epposi’s membership: patients, science and industry as well as its partnerships and interactions with other key stakeholders and EU health and innovation policy-makers.

The new website is designed to keep Epposi members and the health innovation community better informed about our activities and how they contribute to the EU-2020 strategy. New features will be added over the coming weeks, including news feeds, a members-only area and forum to allow more interactive collaboration between programme partners.

Advanced Innovation Programmes

Epposi’s Advanced Innovation Programmes are designed to make a positive contribution to European health policy-making by providing members and the wider public with high quality independent research, capacity-building, knowledge exchange and dissemination with the aim of bridging the gap between innovation and improved public health outcomes.

AIP Chronic Conditions Management

Download the programme outline and timeline

The programme’s principal objective is to provide a workable model for the holistic management of chronic conditions for EU citizens, taking into account the medical, socio-economic and technology dimensions. 

The first phase of the ongoing research phase is now complete.  Working with our knowledge partner for this programme as well as key patients’ organisations and academics in the field, a mapping of existing plans and strategies for chronic disease management has been conducted for cardiovascular, diabetes, COPD, CNDs and MSDs , the results of which will be presented as part of the Epposi  Stakeholder Day in Brussels on 19 May.

Based on the  strategy prevalence mapping, a small pilot exercise was conducted using France as a representative system in order to start compiling the draft audit checklist.

Next steps:
Epposi  invites experts to review, refine and validate the draft audit checklist by the end of May.
Please contact Jacqueline.bowman@epposi.org for more details.

AIP Health Technology Assessment

After much consultation with Epposi members, the European Commission and other experts in the field of HTA, the programme is now looking to address the broader implications of HTA policy and decision-making - how can HTA agencies better represent societal needs and contribute to the EU-2020 healthy life years target?

Further consultation is ongoing and the programme direction will be consolidated at Epposi’s  Stakeholder Day in Brussels on 19 May.

AIP Innovation In Healthcare

On 29 March, Epposi stakeholders met to start to address the challenge of how Epposi can add value through our unique approach to innovation in health policies across Europe.

Within this vast topic, the group focused on three core elements impacting innovation in healthcare today: regulatory, process and financing.

Following the focus group, working  with TU Delft and consulting further amongst the Epposi membership, it is clear that our added value lies in finding an achievable model where communities, competence hubs, and regions can collaborate on the demand side of innovation.  The question of

“How could a co-creation model bridge the gap between the community/end-users and the national/EU regulatory stages?” will therefore be put to interested stakeholders to be considered and finalised during the Epposi Stakeholder Day on 19 May.

AIP Rare Diseases

Consultation is under way to identify the main priorities for the programme following the outcomes of the Focus Group on 18 April, where it was proposed that the programme should be vertical with potential openings to other programmes, such as HTA and Chronic Conditions Management.

The results of the stakeholder consultation will be presented at Epposi’s Stakeholder Day in Brussels on 19 May with the aim of taking a final decision by the end of  June.

Upcoming Epposi Stakeholder Day – 19 May

Register here

You are warmly invited to attend Epposi’s Stakeholder Day on 19 May at the Crowne Plaza Brussels Europa Hotel (Schuman) which will bring together all stakeholders in the morning to discuss progress on Epposi’s  four Advanced Innovation Programmes and consolidate the next phases of their development.

After lunch, there will be an opportunity to find out more about each programme and how to get involved at the mini-fair outside the main meeting room. The day’s proceeding will be filmed by Epposi member organisation ECPC-tv who will also be conducting vox pops among the participants and presenters.

In addition, parallel meetings will be held in the afternoon to allow programme stakeholder representatives to build on the outcomes of the morning’s discussions and feed back to their stakeholder groups in each programme.

Download the Programming Governance documents here

To register interest in becoming a stakeholder representative for our programme, please contact Jacqueline.bowman@epposi.oprg

Economist Group newspaper European Voice will also be holding a Focus Group on Personalised Medicine. If you are interested in participating, please contact jacqueline.bowman@epposi.org

Member events
We are happy to publicise members’ events on our website. Please send details (name of event, date(s), short description, contact details, website) to info@epposi.org.

Dinner debate at the European Parliament – 3 May

Epposi held a dinner debate at the European Parliament in Brussels on 3 May, kindly hosted by Dr Antonyia Parvanova MEP, to discuss the topical question: “To achieve the EU-2020 target of extending healthy life years by two years, do we need more healthcare competences at an EU level?”

Chaired by former MEP John Bowis, now an adviser to FIPRA, a lively and thought-provoking discussion ensued between the panellists – Dr Parvanova, Paul Timmers, newly-appointed director in charge of the European Innovation Partnership in Active and Healthy Ageing at DG Information Society; David Boyd of GE Healthcare; and Alastair Kent, chairman of Epposi - and the audience of over 40 representatives of patients’ organisations, academic sciences, healthcare professionals, EU and national health policy-makers, pharma and medical technology industries, consultancies and healthy working coalitions.

The debate report will be available to download shortly.

Dr Antonyia Parvanova MEP welcoming guests to the dinner debate

John Bowis, debate moderator, and Paul Timmers of DG Information Society

To see more photos from the event click here

Add FIPRA and EP logos ???

Other events

Epposi is speaking at  two EU high level conferences:

World of Health IT/eHealth Week
HIMSS/European Commission
10-12 May 2011
Budapest, Hungary
Session PS11 -
Speaker: Jacqueline Bowman-Busato, Executive Director, Epposi
Session PS 1 - European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing - Hospital & Homecare
Rapporteur: Jacqueline Bowman-Busato, Executive Director, Epposi

European Commission – European Perspectives in Personalised Medicine
12-13 May 2011
Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Alastair Kent, Chairman, Epposi

Epposi participating in EC consultations

EPPOSI will be submitting responses to the following upcoming European Commission consultations in line with the outputs of our Advanced Innovation Programmes:

• Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation Funding (deadline: 20 May)
• eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020 (deadline: 25 May)

Epposi welcomes new members

We are pleased to welcome two new members to our Industry section:

Medtronic     
GE Healthcare
 
For a full list of Epposi members and to find out more about membership, please check our website or contact Jacqueline Bowman-Busato, Executive Director: jacqueline.bowman@epposi.org.

We look forward to collaborating with you all in 2011.
EPPOSI Secretariat

21 rue Marie-Thérèse
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 503 1307
Fax: +32 (0)2 503 3108
info@epposi.org

About Epposi
Founded in 1994, Epposi is an independent, not‐for‐profit, partnership-based and multi‐stakeholder think tank based in Brussels, Belgium, committed to supporting the realisation of the EU‐2020 strategic vision work through the health and wellbeing of its citizens.  With more than 40 EU-facing member organisations, equally balanced between patients’ organisations, academic sciences and industry, Epposi works at the cutting edge of European health policy‐making, providing its members and the wider public with high‐quality independent research, capacity-building, knowledge exchange and dissemination with the aim of bridging the gap between innovation and improved public health outcomes.

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