#EAPM - Update: Mad as March Hares. So here’s to April…It can’t get worse, can it? – Register now…

"The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won't be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March." 

So said Alice in her Adventures in Wonderland while on her way to the Mad Hatter’s tea party. And while we’re not going so far as to call the events in the UK’s House of Commons ‘raving mad’, we can say without fear of contradiction that it’s certainly been no tea party, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

Fortunately, in his lines, author Lewis Carroll was referring to the month of ‘May’, rather than a certain prime minister, because that way madness lies…

So, here we are again. Uncertainty piled upon uncertainty piled upon uncertainty. A multi-layered morass of mega-meltdown, if you will.

Theresa May has quit, well sort of, the back-pedalling Boris is all a-chuckle, Jacob Rees-Mogg stands in the wings like a vampire waiting for the sun to go down, and labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is…well, what is he?

As alluded to, no one really knows where we go next.

Except that Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis does. The commissioner is taking time out to run for President in Lithuanian.

The voice of reason

Fortunately, there will be no such Westminster-style dithering and uncertainty at EAPM’s 7th annual conference in Brussels on 8-9 April, although there will be plenty of discussion.

While we can’t actually promise you a respite from the impacts of Brexit - because we’ll certainly be examining the topic - at least we’ll be looking with as much clarity and positivity as possible at the run-up to the European Parliament elections in May and the new Commission entering the Berlaymont after that.

The EAPM event entitled "Forward as one: Healthcare Innovation and the need for policymaker engagement", will be held in association with the Romanian Presidency, and as ever will act as a bridge to policymakers to further build on positive developments that the Alliance has helped to architect.

You can register, HERE and view the agenda here.

Meanwhile, out there in health care Land

There are so many issues facing modern-day health care, we could call it ‘Wonderland’, as in “I Wonder what will happen next’. OK, maybe not.

Whatever you want to call it, some emerging bad news is that you are probably increasing your chances of getting coronary artery disease. That’s if you work hard. Or even at all.

It transpires - according to a new meta-analysis study in Occupational Health- that every year you work increases by 1% your risk of getting coronary artery disease.

Those who work the late shifts are really in the high-risk zone, though, with their chances of developing such problems a whopping 13% higher than daytime workers. Tough luck on Mr Rees-Mogg.

Anyway, even though you will lose an hour’s sleep with the imminent clock change, at least it’s the weekend. Rejoice!

Meanwhile, colorectal cancer (known as CRC) is on the rise. It has been estimated that by 2030 the disease will cause some 1.1 million deaths every year.

It turns out, though, that around 60 percent of these deaths could be prevented with screening.

(Where have we heard this before? Oh, for lung-cancer and prostate-cancer screening, to name but two, and EAPM and its stakeholders will continue to press the arguments.)

In CRC, screening canhelp find pre-cancerous abnormal growths, called polyps, and they can then be removed before they turn cancerous.

Estimates reckon that in the order of a massive 90% of people will be successfully treated if CRC is diagnosed at the earliest stage.

The arguments over Brexit and, indeed, HTA continue to rumble on, but there’s no arguing with that figure.

OK, yes, Brexit just refuses to go away from our regular Member Updates.

Everyone is happy that agreement on the next round of research funding under Horizon Europe has been reached. Except, of course, the Brits.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the deal “demonstrates how much we have to lose in terms of medical research, future treatments for our patients and the health of our economy should we leave the European Union”.

At the same time, BMA’s Michael Rees called on government “to reassure us that any form of Brexit can replicate the many advantages” of EU collaboration. Good luck with that…

So there we have it. Enjoy the weekend, and we hope to see you at the conference in Brussels!

To register for the EAPM Presidency Conference, please click here and to see agenda click here.

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