On Monday 11th September, I co-chaired a Professional Development Workshop about “Patient Involvement in Medical Projects” at the ERS International Congress. This year’s congress describes itself as “the largest meeting of respiratory professionals in the world, with another outstanding scientific and educational programme designed to address the needs of researchers, clinicians, general practitioners and allied health professionals alike.” It sure was large!
The workshop went well. The Train the Trainer workshop in Berlin was a big help. After introductions, I gave a lightning lecture on “What Is Patient Involvement And What Value Can It Bring”. The killer slide here was the diagram illustrating which stages of the drug development life-cycle patients can get involved at. I also encouraged people to use the EUPATI toolbox. Dr James Chalmers from Dundee and Marta Almagro from Barcelona followed up with a master Lecture on “Professional And Patient Perspectives On Involvement”. We had spoken in advance, so our presentations complimented each other. We then had a practical workshop about a case study for a conversation aid for use during clinical encounters between patient and clinicians for COPD treatment options. There were only enough attendees for two tables and I sat with one table while Marta sat with the other. James passed between tables encouraging conversation. The outcomes were as we expected but we were careful not to feed the attendees the “answers”.
Dominique – my EUPATI fellow was in attendance at the workshop. She also spoke at the conference and had an article about “The Importance Of Patient Involvement In Clinical Trials” in the exhibition magazine. There was a Global Village where we could interact with other patient organizations but as you have seen on the EUPATI Facebook group- we were not allowed into the actual exhibition.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity and please let me know if you require any additional information?
#PatientsInvolved
Joan Jordan
EUPATI Graduate
