On 4 th December, EFA joined the EPF Patient task force meeting on nutrition, together with ten other representatives of EU umbrella and national patients’ associations. The meeting was chaired by Mr Cees Smit, Policy Advisor at EGAN, the European Genetic Alliances Network and moderated by Ms Katie Gallagher, Policy Advisor at EPF.
We discussed on some key takeaways from the recent ONCA Conference in Portugal, as well as the collaboration between EPF and the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) on summaries of guidelines for patients and the development of new guidelines on medical
nutricion.We found the role of ONCA campaign as a valuable platform expressing patients’ perspectives. For EFA, this meeting constituted a reminder of the need to build a strong united network of patients’ representatives within the ONCA campaign, and reinforcing the voice of patients within bodies that produce nutritional guidelines, such as ESPEN. Medical nutrition plays important role for example in severe COPD and food allergy.
Participants discussed the main nutrition-related priorities for 2019. We had the opportunity to lay out some of the key points for the agenda for 2019, expected to be a crucial year with numerous regulatory and institutional challenges.
To know more about our work on nutrition, please visit EPF website.