News in general

Summer 2019 Newsletter from European Partnership on Competencies for High Value COst COnscious CARE Project

The annual WHO meeting of the mental health forum was held on the 14-15 October 2019.  This is the first time that Neurology was invited to attend and present in two separate sessions.  I represented the EAN and presented the case for global Neurosciences in the two sessions.

On 16 October, EAN participated in an event in the European Parliament organized by Global Alliance of Mental Illness Advocacy Networks-Europe (GAMIAN Europe). The event brought together the MEP Alliance for Mental Health, organizations and societies focused on brain and mental health as well as several policy makers from the EU institutions. This MEP Alliance is endorsed by 26 members of the European Parliament.

Open letter on the future of research. Addition research to official title Commissioner Mariya Gabriel

As a follow-up to the survey on the renovation of the ICH Good Clinical Practice Guidelines (ICH E6) conducted in August, the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) has launched a new open comment opportunity which enables specific comments to be collected.

The "Central Asian Movement Disorders Course" was conducted in the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, on June 22-23, 2019. The venue was the conference room of Kyrgyz-Turkish Center named after Chingiz Aitmatov of the historic National Library of the Kyrgyz Republic named after Alykul Osmonov. The two-day course was jointly organized by the Movement Disorders Society and Parkinson’s Disease Alliance - CIS, and the Clinical Hospital of the Administrative Department of Presidential and Government Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic. Support was provided by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Asian Oceanian Section (MDS-AOS) under the auspices of the Developing World Education Program (DWEP).

This September, European Member States nominated their picks for the College of Commissioners, also known as the European Commission President’s team. Each Member State needs to nominate one Commissioner, which then are assigned a portfolio, a department, by the President-elect and then heard and confirmed by the relevant committees in the European Parliament.

The EU Health Coalition published two statements in September on research coordination and access to innovation. The first statement called for a balanced Horizon Europe fostering research and innovation that ensures sufficient coordination. The second one argues for the creation of a Stakeholder Forum for Better Access to Health Innovation to address persisting critical health challenges in the EU.

Health ministers and high-level representatives of the 53 Member States of the WHO European Region, as well as partner and civil society organizations, will take part in the 69th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe. The session took place at UN City, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 16–19 September 2019

 “SILENTLY LOSING THE BRAIN – The enigma of small vessel disease” Come to Copenhagen for the next Brain Prize Meeting in November 2019. With international keynote speakers, including the 2019 prize winners, the Lundbeck Foundation Brain Prize Meeting aims to bring a broad range of researchers to discuss why small vessel disease has emerged as a major contributor to dementia, migraine and stroke worldwide.

Ahead of discussions on the new Multiannual Financial Framework (EU Budget for 2021-2027) during the European Council Summit on 20-21 June, the BioMed Alliance together with the EU Health Coalition partners published a statement advocating for a more substantial EU research budget.

Successful collaboration between the EAN and the International Neuro-urology Society (INUS) at the 7th annual International Neuro-urology Meeting in Zurich. The 7th International Neuro-urology Meeting was held in January 2019 and for the first time, a dedicated Neurosciences workshop was held in collaboration with the EAN. The half-day workshop on Thursday 24 January 2019 began with imaging research and our understanding of the neural control of the lower urinary tract, and included topics such as a review of the neural networks responsible for lower urinary tract control, potential brain imaging biomarkers to evaluate therapeutic interventions for LUT dysfunction and Neuroimaging of functional recovery in SCI. 

Interview with Prof. Claudio Baracchini - President of the ESNCH Prof. Dafin Muresanu interviews President of the ESNCH, Prof. Claudio Baracchini

Migraine is the number one cause of disability affecting people under the age of fifty years  ( the group with the highest contribution to workforce worldwide) making one of the highest negative economic impacts globally(1).  According to the latest analysis from the GBD study, almost 3 billion people had a headache disorder in 2016: 1.89 billion had a diagnosis of tension-type headache, and 1.04 billion had a diagnosis of migraine(2). Migraine was responsible for 45.12 million years of life lived with disability (YLD), with a peak in prevalence in women between 15 and 49 years(3). One in seven suffer from this disabling, least respected, worst managed, least recognised complex brain disorder worldwide(5).

Governmental Expert Group on Dementia holds second meeting The European Group of Governmental Experts on Dementia held its second meeting on 17 and 18 June 2019 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 20 European countries were represented at the meeting, in addition to representatives from the 2nd European Joint Action on Dementia (Act on Dementia/DEM2), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Alzheimer Europe.