BARCELONA, 15 September 2024:
In just under five hours, in Barcelona’s Hospitalet de Llobregat on 14 September, leading oncologists and clinicians from Asia, the Americas and Europe demonstrated the technical opportunities for offering personalised care more widely in their own regions.
In every region, the chances are there for dramatically improving health outcomes through the use of innovative techniques of prevention, screening, early diagnosis and targeted care.
Changes in the healthcare context could ensure better use of the potential offered by new technologies in testing, in diagnosis and in treatment, particularly of cancer, through development and use of biomarkers and the advanced treatments.
At the same time, all speakers pointed out how taking advantage of these opportunities depends on decisions that go beyond the health sphere.
“Promises will be realised only if the problems faced in every region are confronted squarely by policymakers,” summarised the conference moderator, Denis Horgan, EAPM Executive Director.
Healthcare professionals, decision makers, patient organisations, and umbrella organizations in the field of personalised medicine took part in this conference, entitled ‘Forward together with innovation: The why, what and how of tackling the Implementation gap for healthcare in different regions’,
The outcome was a clearer understanding among all parties of the need for more vigorous debate among all stakeholders, and agreement on recommendations of a technical and political nature that will result in a better deal for patients and a more sustainable approach to healthcare.
Successful development and deployment of healthcare innovation depends on a policy framework in which countries would find it easier to reach consistent decisions
and to provide clearer funding arrangements, boosting access and continued development.
There is hope, the conference concluded, in that renewed attention to disparities in health care and access across different regions is driving new assessments of obstacles and new solutions.
It is also promoting greater networking and collaboration among cancer institutions. But nothing will happen by accident. Success will result only from constructive interaction among stakeholders from across the community everywhere, in pursuit of a personalised healthcare-centred strategy involving decision makers
