If you have trouble viewing the newsletter, please click here.

Dear ESOP Members,

We send you the latest ECCO Newsletter for your consideration.

We wish you enjoyable readings.

Best regards,

Eda Gedikoglu

Chair of Publication

For ECCO Member Societies and ECCO Patient Advisory Committee

In the News...

  • ECCO welcomes new member ESOI
  • ECCO 2018 Summit news: Speakers, resolutions and deadlines
  • Briefing: Brussels debates improved HTA cooperation
  • ECCO partners with the Collaboration for Oncology Data in Europe to explore pragmatic outcomes measurement
  • Quality in cancer care: Making it a European habit
  • Dates for your diary
  • #ICYMI: Cancer policy developments

ECCO welcomes new member ESOI

ECCO proudly welcomes its newest member – the European Society of Oncologic Imaging (ESOI), whose membership application was confirmed and approved at the May meeting of the ECCO General Assembly.

ESOI is an apolitical, non-profit organisation, exclusively and directly dedicated to promoting and coordinating the scientific, philanthropic, intellectual and professional activities of oncologic imaging.

ECCO President Philip Poortmans said: “With continuing and exciting technological developments that improve cancer diagnosis and care in the field of medical imaging, it is wonderful that ECCO activities, such as our work on Quality Cancer Care, will now benefit from the oncology-specific input of ESOI and its members. The value of imaging will be in the spotlight at the ECCO 2018 European Cancer Summit in September, a session I am especially looking forward to.”

ESOI President Regina Beets-Tan said: “ECCO represents a unique coming together of stakeholders involved in cancer care across Europe to advocate for system improvements. ESOI is pleased to join our health professional colleagues from across the cancer care continuum in making the case for multidisciplinarity, quality cancer care and access for patients to all innovations that improve outcomes, including innovations in imaging.”

ECCO 2018 Summit news: Speakers, resolutions and deadlines

Recent additional confirmed speakers for the ECCO 2018 European Cancer Summit include:

Prof. Lorenzo Derchi, President of the European Society of Radiology (ESR)
Prof. Andreas Charalambous, President-Elect of the European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS)
Dr. Maria Die Trill, President of the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS)
Eveline Scheres, Chair of the ECL Access to Cancer Medicines Taskforce
Šarunas Narbutas, President of the Lithuanian Cancer Patient Coalition
Dr. Clifford Hudis, Chief Executive of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
Dr. Dinah Singer, National Institute of Health, USA
Prof. Hideo Baba, Japan Society of Clinical Oncology
Dr Ajay Aggarwal, Institute of Cancer Policy, King’s College London
Prof. Riccardo Audisio, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg

They join other high profile speakers such as the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Dr. Vytenis Andriukaitis, the President of Malta Her Excellency Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Professor Richard Sullivan and many others for a focused three day programme on the pressing policy challenges for cancer care in Europe. Read more about the programme here.

Resolutions out for internal consultation

Meanwhile, early draft Summit resolutions on the topics of Quality Cancer Care (measurement), Integration of Cancer Care and Survivorship (financial discrimination) are currently being consulted upon with the ECCO Oncopolicy Committee, Patient Advisory Committee and Summit Societies Committee. Following receipt of this internal feedback the resolutions will be published on the ECCO website for a period of open public consultation. Final versions will be voted on at connected sessions at the Summit event.

 

ECCO 2018 Save the date

Any interested ECCO member or member of the ECCO Patient Advisory Committee is invited to submit remarks on the initial drafts before close of business Tuesday 12th June. Download the internal consultation draft here.

Early registration deadline fast approaching!

Finally, we would like to remind readers that the deadline for early registration discount to the ECCO 2018 European Cancer Summit is fast approaching – Monday, 25th June. Do please keep your members and network informed of this important opportunity to make saving on the registration fee.

More information here.  

Briefing: Brussels debates improved HTA cooperation

Since its publication at the end of January 2018, the European Commission’s proposal for achieving greater systematic cooperation between countries in the conduct of health technology assessment (HTA) has received increasing scrutiny from the European Parliament, national government representatives and interested stakeholder organisations.

European Commission

Since its publication at the end of January 2018, the European Commission’s proposal for achieving greater systematic cooperation between countries in the conduct of health technology assessment (HTA) has received increasing scrutiny from the European Parliament, national government representatives and interested stakeholder organisations.

Points of controversy in this proposal have included:

  • The mandatory nature of the joint clinical assessment. National HTA bodies will be under legal obligation to rely on the Coordination Group’s joint clinical assessment report. Some stakeholders believes this goes further than necessary and undermines the EU’s subsidiarity principle (action should only taken at EU level when it is more effective than EU countries acting alone at national, regional or local level)
  • The inclusion of devices within the proposal. Spokespersons for the devices industry oppose the inclusion citing concerns of new regulatory burden and potential delays in patient access

The Commission’s legal proposal is now advancing through various stages of scrutiny within the European Parliament, with protracted discussions between the European Parliament, Council of Ministers and European Commission due to take place throughout Autumn 2018.

Recent meetings of the ECCO Oncopolicy Committee and ECCO Patient Advisory Committee considered the proposal and directed on core elements of ECCO positioning, including:

  • General support for the broad principle of HTA cooperation between countries
  • A strong need for transparency, accountability and scrutiny opportunities within such structures
  • A core need for healthcare stakeholders such as healthcare professionals and patients to be able to make meaningful inputs to HTA processes, on a systematic and guaranteed basis

ECCO will be articulating further on the EU’s HTA legislative file through 2018 on this basis, with ongoing oversight and input from its Oncopolicy Committee and Patient Advisory Committee.

ECCO partners with the Collaboration for Oncology Data in Europe to explore pragmatic outcomes measurement

ECCO and the Collaboration for Oncology Data in Europe (CODE) are embarking on a joint initiative to explore outcomes measurement within cancer care. The goal is to further explore the topic of outcomes measurement to identify metrics of high clinical value, meaningful for both patients and clinicians, but which can be measured efficiently and be put “at the right scale”. This work will be part of the longer journey towards comprehensive outcomes measurement. 

“ECCO’s mission is to improve outcomes for cancer patients through the delivery of higher quality cancer care. This partnership allows us to contribute to the debate on how to move towards delivering greater value to patients and healthcare systems. We are therefore delighted to be working with CODE to better understand which outcomes can be measured accurately today, to explore their value and the associated cost of capturing this data, and to contribute towards the journey to comprehensive outcomes measurement,” said Prof Philip Poortmans, ECCO’s President.

Read more here.

Quality in cancer care: Making it a European habit

In the Spring edition of Cancer World magazine, the ECCO President Philip Poortmans focuses on the ECCO mission and its expression through the Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care programme. These new charters for improvement, created for specific tumour types, set out in clear terms the checklist elements required to be in place to achieve quality cancer care.

Read more here.
 

Dates for your diary

  • 1-31 May 2018: Bladder Cancer Awareness Month. More information here.
  • 25-31 May 2018:European Week Against cancer. More information here
  • 6 June 2018: ESR event in the European Parliament "From health policy to practice". More information here.
  • 7-9 September 2018: ECCO 2018 European Cancer Summit. More information here.
  • 8-10 June 2018: Annual Congress of the European Cancer Patient Coalition. More information here.
  • 16-22 June 2018: 20th Workshop on Methods in Clinical Cancer Research. More information here.
  • 27 September 2018:United Nations High-level Meeting on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). More information here.
  • Until 28 Sep 2018: Invitation to express interest for Breast Cancer Services and stakeholders. More information here.
  • 10-12 October 2018: ESSO 38, Budapest, Hungary. More information here.
  • 25-27 October 2018: European Conference of Oncology Pharmacy, Nantes, France. More information here.

#ICYMI: Cancer policy developments

Keep up to date with breaking cancer news via ECCO’s ‘This Week in EU Cancer Policy News

European Society of Oncology Pharmacy
Veritaskai 6, D 21079 Hamburg
Tel: 0049 - 40 466 500 300
Mail: membershipservice@esop.li



Fax: 0049 - 40 466 500 100
Web: www.esop.li

  If you don't want to recieve any further ESOP Newsletters, please click to unsubscribe.