#EAPM: Madrid event floats personalised medicine needs at national level

Significant steps towards integrating personalised medicine into the Spanish health-care system have been made at a key forum in Madrid, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

The meeting, entitled 'Making Access to Personalised Medicine a Reality for Patients', took place at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas under the umbrella of the Brussels-based European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) as part of its SMART Outreach programme.

SMART stands for Smaller Member states And Regions Together and the event aimed to form an informal network of stakeholders that can support an environment for personalised medicine at the national and regional level.

Among the conclusions of the event, hosted by Nuria Malats who is leader of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group at the CNIO, were the fact that it is necessary to formulate a patient-centred strategy involving national decision-makers and regulators.

The meeting also identified the goal of enabling the EU and member states to contribute to integrating personalised medicine into clinical practice while also enabling much-greater access for patients.

Speaking after the meeting, Malats said: “In order to provide a clear focus and to devote sufficient space to analysis, discussions during the conference concentrated on how Spain can contribute to this at the EU level and how this can be enhanced at the national level.”

She added: “We met to assess and address obstacles to the integration of personalised medicine into Europe’s healthcare systems, to identify best practices and their added value and to outline the potential benefits of personalised medicine on public health and its impact on policymaking in the EU.

“Now we need to go forward and support this action at the national level.”

EAPM’s Executive Director Denis Horgan said: “The Alliance is very supportive of such activities nationally, and this builds on all the work that EAPM has done at the EU level.”

Horgan added: “Our next step will be to take these messages to the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday (23 September) as we strive to get personalised medicine recognised globally.”

During the meeting, Andalusia’s Ramon Gonzalez Carvajal said that it is vital to highlight the role of the regions. “Because Spain is such a big country, the regions are important too, and this should not be forgotten,” he told the event.

International research specialist Alfonso Beltran Garcia–Echaniz put forward examples of specific research instruments to foster personalised medicine in Health Research Institutes, and spoke about developing the European Strategic research and innovation agenda from a funding organization perspective. He called for “research projects, a commitment to funding, and European co-ordination”.

Patient advocate Natacha Bolanos, meanwhile, focused on the difficulties inherent in assessing ‘value’ in modern medicine, pointing out that “patient ideas of value are often different from those of industry and health services”.

And Madrid Health Ministry’s Teresa Chavarria Gimenez said: “Patients want accurate diagnosis, access to treatments, symptom control and better information as well as true participation and empowerment.”

She added that, for their part: “Physicians need  accurate pathology, prognosis and prediction, as well as access to technology and resources.”

Horgan said: “Spain is a large country and EAPM’s SMART Outreach programme is ideal in a nation that has many distinct regions.

“Personalised medicine starts with the patient. It holds great potential for improving the health of many patients and ensuring better outcomes through health systems’ efficiency and transparency.

“But we all know that its integration into clinical practice and daily care is proving difficult given the many barriers and challenges to timely access to targeted healthcare that still exist today.”

And Nuria Malats said: “If personalised medicine is to be in line with the EU and Spanish principle of universal and equal access to high quality health care, then clearly it must be made available to many more citizens than it is now.”

She added: “In times of budgetary constraints, facilitating better-targeted and more cost-efficient treatment is in line with the Europe 2020 strategy and the aims of the Juncker Commission.

“By taking stock of where we are in Europe and Spain in terms of access to personalised medicine, we can acknowledge the challenges that need to be overcome. And by highlighting opportunities to accelerate progress, the scene for further action can be set that will make early access to personalised medicine a reality for patients throughout Spain.”

A follow-up meeting in connection with this event is scheduled for November. The focus, then, will be on translational research and identification of best practice examples from around Spain, with a view to these being taken up across Europe.

Other topics under discussion at the November gathering will be building a framework to support improved decision making in healthcare, and increasing the training and education of health-care professionals.

Speakers at the event included: Alfonso Beltran Garcia–Echaniz, Deputy Director General for International Research Programmes & Institutional Relations, ISCIII; Ramon Gonzalez Carvajal General Secretary for Research, Development & Innovation - Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia; Natacha Bolanos, Spanish Group for Cancer Patients, GEPAC; Fatima Al-Shahrour, Head of the Translational Bioinformatics Unit - CNIO, and; Teresa Chavarria Gimenez, Sub-director General for Health Research, Madrid Health Ministry.

Also speaking in Madrid were: Juan Riese, H2020 NCP and National Expert, Health Institute Carlos III; European Projects office CS1; Vera Ruth, Vice-President, Spanish Society of medical Oncology (SEOM), and; Simon Heath, Centro Nacional de Analisis Genomico - CNAG-CRG; Pablo del Pino, Vice-President Strategy&Operations, Celgene; Federico Plaza, Vice-President, Roche Institute; Alberto Rubio, Government Affairs Manager, Astrazeneca, and; Roberto Delgado Bolton, San Pedro Hospital and Centre for Biomedical Research of La Rioja.