English

ECPC will participate at the Plenary Meeting of the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer – ECIBC: “Improving breast cancer screening, diagnosis and care in Europe” in the Lago Maggiore District in Italy that will take place from the 9th to the 11th of December 2015.

The ECIBC, European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer, is the response of the European Commission to the Council of the European Union’s conclusions on reducing the burden of cancer. The Commission initiated a ground-breaking project to develop a European Quality Assurance Scheme for breast cancer services, underpinned by accreditation and high quality, evidence-based guidelines.

Two Working Groups were established, the Guidelines Development Group and the Quality Assurance Scheme Development Group, the members of which were appointed following a Call for expression of interest. ECPC participates in the Quality Assurance Scheme Development Group, represented by its Vice President, Kathi Apostolidis.

The purpose of the plenary is to update Member States and stakeholders on the progress the ECIBC is making. The Plenary Meeting of the ECIBC will also provide a platform for the discussion and exchange on current priority issues in breast cancer service and for address related healthcare policies.

One of the session of the ECIBC Plenary will be devoted to Communication in patient-centred services. This session aims to discuss examples, best practises and possibilities for assessing person-centred communication in breast cancer services. The debate and conclusions will facilitate development of recommendations and enable comparison of the quality of breast cancer services.

The session will be chaired by Dr. Luzia Travado, from the Champalimaud Clinical Centre, Lisboa, Portugal, whose presentation will focus on psychosocial oncology care and clinical practice guidelines in adults, Dr. Yvonne Wengström from Karolinska Institute and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden , who will discuss the continuity of communication and how to assess it; and Kathi Apostolidis from the European Cancer Patient Coalition, Brussels, Belgium who will present the patient perspectives and experiences on the need to move from a disease-centred to a patient-centred communication.