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Press Release: Personalised medicine shifts healthcare training goalposts

Cascais, Portugal: Friday 8 July: Portugal’s football team has been having great success at Euro 2016 and equally successful was the first Summer School for healthcare professionals hosted by the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) in Cascais, near the country’s capital, Lisbon.

The Alliance’s five-day event scored on many levels as attendees came from around 20 EU Member States representing a host of health-related disciplines, while the hugely experienced faculty was equally representative of Europe-wide participation.

Held at the Cultural Centre in the popular town of Cascais, the school ran from 3-7 July and was aimed at bringing healthcare professionals (HCPs) aged 25-40 up-to-speed on new technologies and treatments in the arena of personalised medicine.

Past-president of the European Hematology Association Christine Chomienne played a key role and said today (Friday) said: “It was a great success and at the end we discussed what was meant by personalised medicine and, by concensus, we all agreed that it came down to the ‘person’ in personalised medicine. It all came down to the individual characteristsic of the patient, his or her lifestyle, diet, work and not just biological characteristics.

The former EHA chief added: “Each attendee individually gave their definition of personalised medicine and, at the end of the week, had all learned a great deal.”

Ken Mastris, president of Europa Uomo and a prostate cancer survivor said: “From my point of view this first summer school went extremely well and it was good to see so many upcoming stars attending. The younger generation will have a different view on the treatment of patients.”

Patient advocate Louis Denis said: “This event has been hugely successful and, as Ken said, these young HCPs - the new generation – will be the ones fulfilling the huge potential of personalised medicine to improve patients’ quality of life and, in many cases, save their lives.”

And EAPM executive director Denis Horgan explained that: “The summer school is part of the Alliance’s health education strategy going forward and will be backed up by a series of webinars and further schools in the future.”

Peter Kapitein, Patient Advocate of Inspire2Live, told attendees on the final day: “Patient advocacy was created to empower people to convert the sense of powerlessness, caused by cancer, into one of strength. It is founded on the absolute belief that you can attain the greatest possible satisfaction by putting your heart and soul into helping others.

“Our motto is “Never, ever quit!”, he added. “We refuse to accept any limitations in what we can and will achieve. We have a mission: To facilitate and inspire people to lead Happy and Healthy lives in Harmony with cancer.”

EAPM had previously issued a call stating that: “By 2020, the EU should support the development of a Europe-wide education and training of healthcare professionals’ curriculum for the personalised medicine era. The EU should subsequently facilitate the development of an Education and Training Strategy for HCPs in Personalised Medicine.”

The Brussels-based Alliance believes that health is all about patients and potential patients – almost 500 million across the EU’s 28 Member States. Each healthcare system within the EU features the coming-together of one set of citizens in need of diagnosis and treatment and another set entrusted to deliver. This trust is based upon a blend of technical competence and service orientation and is steered by ethical commitment and social accountability, which forms the essence of reliable and professional healthcare.

Developing such a blend requires lengthy education of HCPs and, consequently, a substantial investment by policy makers and society.

Advances in personalised medicine will and must fundamentally alter the scope, content and manner in which these HCPs are trained and educated. A report of the Summer School will follow in the next weeks.