EFA

Baltic Alignment Meeting in Vilnius On 15 February, the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius will be hosting EFA’s meeting with patient associations of Baltic countries representing patients with allergy, asthma and COPD. The objective is to establish or renew relationship between EFA and these organisations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The EFA will be represented by Board Member Lina Buzermaniene, David Brennan and Jan Meissner. The agenda will include presentation of EFA’s latest activities in the field of patient representation on European and national level as well as possible benefits for the Baltic associations of the membership in EFA. The organizations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will have floor for presentation of their work and their expectations from the partnership with EFA. The outcomes of the meeting will be presented in the February edition of the newsletter.   Training on functioning of EMA Not long after the event in Vilnius, EFA is organising a training in Brussels for 15 patients with allergy, asthma and COPD and their representatives on functioning of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The event will take place on 18 February, and its objectives are to empower patients and patient experts to effectively and proactively participate in the EMA activities. For this purpose, Isabelle Moulon, Head of Patients and Healthcare Professionals Department at EMA will be present to introduce EMA to the participants and to explain how the patients are involved in EMA activities. This will be followed by presentations and case studies lead by EFA President Breda Flood, EFA Board Member Lina Buzermaniene and EFA Executive Officer Susanna Palkonen who are actively involved in the EMA Patients & Consumers Working Party. The participants are expected to gain extensive knowledge on the role of the EMA as well as role of the patients within the EMA. They are expected to actively participate in EMA upcoming events and activities to provide patient perspective. The programme of the event is available here   Does the EU innovative research for allergy and respiratory disease benefit patients?  EU Projects with EFA as a partner to showcase findings at the European Parliament While traveling to various annual meetings in January, EFA has formally notified its consortium partners for EU funded research projects of our event to be held at the European Parliament on 17 June 2014. The event will present ongoing projects where patients are actively participating and should stand to benefit from their outputs. The project coordinators from each project have already agreed to participate and will have an opportunity to present the results so far and patients involved will present their perspective. Panel discussions will inquire further into ways in which European patients, research initiatives and the EU as a whole all stand to benefit from such projects. These benefits will be assessed from the perspectives of the project coordinators, patient representatives and policymakers. Although EFA is still drafting a programme for the event, the content will aim towards educating the public and policymakers on a diverse range of the different innovative EU projects focused on allergy and respiratory diseases along with their goals and anticipated outcomes (or results if already available). Additionally, the event will demonstrate the utility of EU-funded research projects for patients and how integrating patients into the projects has been beneficial to them. Lastly, stakeholders in attendance will be informed of ways project outcomes could assist European healthcare systems and improve patients’ quality of life in the future. Keep checking our next newsletters for further updates and a draft programme of this event!