Minutes of the General Assembly

30 January, 2016

Tom opened the meeting with welcome words and thanked everyone for joining the General Assembly meeting

New Members: 

Ukrain : Leonid Dubey
Bulgaria: Ivan Ivanov
Macedonia and Montenegro: Joined the society however ould not attend

New ND:

Luxemburg: Tomasz Szczepanski

No remarks were made on the agenda and the minutes of the last GA were approved unanimously.

Presidents Report

Tom presented the structure of the UEMS and paediatric section within the UEMS.

Paediatric section of UEMS must follows the rules and regulations of the UEMS.

The rules are that sections are not full members and they don’t have voting rights.  They can lobby and bring forward ideas and suggestions to the ND but they do not have any voting rights.

These issues are now under heavily debates.

One of the main things EAP is discussing is how to be more known and be more visible in the EU.  How to better advocate for children, children’s health and health providers. 

One of the aims is the EAP lobbying, trying to get our foot into the EU and get in contact with the EU policy makers.

 Different statement have been published, press releases and letters have been written to different bodies like WHO etc.

Secretary General Report

Adamos mentioned that the EAP has been very active in the couple of years.

EAP 2015 Oslo

The meeting was successful with nearly 850 participants. The master Course was on Allergology, and was led by Jose Lopes dos Santos who did a great job. Compared to the 1^st meeting we have increased the participants by 50 % there were representatives from 83 countries. Majority came from Europe 

From the questionnaire it seems that the participants were satisfied with the organization and with the scientific level. The income form the meeting was high- 72, 000 €

We are looking forward to the next meeting which will be held in 2017 and aiming to reach more participants.

Membership statistics

The membership is growing steadily. We now have 428 members.

New website

The new website will be modern, mobile responsive and user friendly.

Adamos thanks Peter Altorjai for working closely with him on the development of the website.

The website should be launched by the end of February/ beginning of March.

Adamos stressed the fact that the website can look nice and modern however it must contain interesting content. In every GA there is a request to the ND to send interesting content to upload on the website. We need to develop content, guidelines, statements newsletters.

Publication

There were different publications that were published over the last year. It is very important not only for the EAP but also for the National societies that can use the content of these publications to support their own statements in their home countries.

Journal

 BMJ does not allow any statements to be published. Therefore the decision to Change the journal has been taken and the new journal as of 2017 will be the European Journal of Paediatrics (EJP).

EJP will provide EAP the possibility to publish 6 statements a year.

Collaboration with Colgate

Colgate would like to have collaboration with EAP on dental health. Colgate will provide EAP an unrestricted educational grant.

With the money EAP will develop a survey on oral health, a webinar and also, a presentation in the next spring meeting will be held.

Approval chapter 6 and common trunk

Both have been officially approved by the UEMS In their last GA held in Warsaw.

Adamos thanked Robert for his hard work.

European Medicines Agency

Human Scientific Committees’ Working Party with Healthcare Professionals’ Organizations (HCPWP)

Appoint other members of EAP to EMA:

• Scientific advisory group in treating patients with Duchenne
• Ethics committee within EMA
• Committee evaluating a medicine for ADHD

Other activities:

• WEB-RADR project. (To explore the use of mobile technologies and social media to further improve the collection and analysis of information on the suspected adverse drug reactions.
• Social media group 

The EAP should work as a team and promote the activities of the society across Europe.

Karoly was asking about the relationship of EAP and EPA, what is the difference between the societies and whys isn’t there more collaboration or even a step to a joint society.

The goals are more or less the same, what is the idea of having these 2 organisations in Europe.

The EAP has been trying to collaborate with EPA and have mutual statements however not always there is a will to collaborate. 

We have appointed a liaison officer (Stefano del Torso) for many years to represent the EAP in the EPA. There is also a signed agreement for a mutual understand and benefits but EPA never followed this agreement.

Ivan, the vice president of EPA mentioned that the EPA is the society of national paediatric societies in all Europe even to countries that are not members of the EU.

 Ivan agrees that the 2 organisations should work together for the benefit of children and therefore there are many possibilities in collaborating and we should work together. 

Peter Hoyer explained a bit about the history of the EAP and the change of name from CESP to EAP.

Stefano added that there have been many efforts to collaborate, such as the strategic alliance however it has been ended.

EBP

A lot of sections of the UEMS are planning diploma exams as part of their own specialties.

We are pretty late and we need to speed up. It has been agreed that it is not worthwhile to start from scratch and it will be better to seek for a partnership with the RCPCH, using most of the MCQ’s questions

That could be adapted to Europe.

We need a text book; we have a curriculum, need to set up a quality committee to evaluate the assignment. 

European Board examination- 

RCPCH were enthusiastic, they did not wish to set the exam for Europe but they will be happy to work with us as to what they describe as an interim exam which would be based on what is currently available MRCPCH written exam.

We have agreement form them that they are keen and happy to work with us and to develop in a short and specified period of time.

The language issue is still an issue therefore it will not be a mandatory exam but an optional one.

None of the diplomas have been recognised yet. However in some small countries the diplomas are well accepted.

Treasurer’s report

Arunas presented the county members and mentioned the new members.

The financial situation of the EAP is good. Income is mainly form the annual congresses.  

There are 2 accounts, one is under the UENS and the other is an EAP account based in Brussels.

Arunas presented the balance of the 2 accounts. The accounts are regulated by a Belgium audit company.

EAP must have 2 accounts one account should be relates only to the UEMS activities, such as payment of the member countries and the EAP account related to EAP affairs only such as individual members, educational grants and income form meetings.

The winter meeting will be only a business political meeting and avoid to accommodate any  scientific meetings.

The scientific meetings will be the annual meetings and the spring meeting.

Peter Hoyer expressed his frustration from the UEMS regulations and their restrictions with the financial account, especially considering the fact that the EAP does not have a voting right.

Francis explained the situation of the UEMS and what they are seeking form. However EAP still didn’t receive an answer when will the UEMS return the money that the wish to borrow. 

As there are 2 accounts, the financial reports should be presented in 2 different reports, one for each account. 

It was requested to receive the financial report 1 month before the GA meetings take place so that delegates will be able to look into  it before the GA.

It was finally voted and agreed on that Karoly Illy and Martin White will be the ones who will receive and review the financial report 2 weeks before the GA. 

The purpose of the EAP is not to gain money but to find ways to invest the money in promoting the purpose of the EAP which is taking care of Children’s health.

The EC will inform the members about the ideas of how to invest the money in different activities that will promote the purpose of the association. 

All agreed that the finance report of 2015 has been approved.

PC & SC report

Bjorn and Jernej reported what was discussed in the PC & SC working group:

 The MOCHA project was presented by Stefano del Torso. In each country, a country agent is appointed responsible to gather specific data. The EAP national delegates were asked to contact and if needed support the appointed country agent in his/her mission.

A shared vision (between EAP- Europen academy of Pediatrics, EPA- European Pediatric Association and ECPCP- European confederation of primary care pediatricians) of improving community and primary care services for children, adolescents and their families in Europe. This project was initiated by the three organizations at the EAPS congress in Barcelona, Oct 2014. A working group of Simon Lenton (EPA), Gottfried Huss (ECPCP) and Björn Wettergren (EAP) has worked with a draft to be assigned by the presidents of the three organizations.

The working group is now close to finalize a draft. However a key questions still remains to be solved where ECPCP and EAP is in favour of having the document written in line with the statement of the EC of EAP presented in Lancet 2015, which means mentioning paediatricians as those doctors who should preferably take care of children. EPA has been persistent reluctant to this. The American Academy of pediatrics also used this wording when they published their statement in American Journal of Pediatrics in 1992.

Another topic was the problems of the paediatric primary care at the European level and in various European countries. 

We discussed the problems faced by fellow paediatricians at national level, and are common to most EAP member states. The following problems were exposed:

• Increasing the wishes and interests of various professional groups according to treatment of children and adolescents (Midwifes  in France alone examining new-borns, children at the age of one year, independent advising on the vaccination, independent advising on adolescent contraception) – a setup of minimal standards should be done
• Problem of movements against vaccination, on a European level
• Incorrect information that parents receive on the Internet
• Migration of doctors for economic reasons
• Pressure on policies that would allow a greater number of specialization in Paediatrics, on a national level. 
• The problem of dealing with migrant children – colleagues want to learn more about the particular method and approach to children from different cultural backgrounds

A need for Minimum standards in paediatrics for someone who takes care for children and adolescents- from nurses to general practitioners. 

All Common problems in paediatrics- prepare a statement on this matter, which would be discussed at next meeting in Dublin. 

Future forms of the Primary and Secondary care Working Groups within EAP.

It has been suggested to merge the two groups under the heading “community paediatrics” or “general paediatrics”. In the following discussion it was concluded to continue with the current organization and instead focus on redefining the identity of primary and secondary care. Jernej and Björn were asked to work on new definitions and present their results at the PSWG in Dublin 2016 for further dialogue.   

Primary/community paediatric care as a subspecialty? Pros and Cons were discussed. A working group was chosen to work further with this issue and present their results at the PSWG in Dublin 2016. The appointed group members were Karin Geitmann, Angel Carrasco Sanz, Manuel Katz, Jernej Zavrsnik,  Björn Wettergren and it was suggested to also contact Gabriela Kobatova. 

A statement concerning passive smoking. A draft has been written by Jonas F Ludvigsson current president of the Swedish Paediatric Society. It was concluded that PSWG support the draft and that it should be passed to the EC of EAP for completion.  

Can we identify a common set of data monitoring the health of children and adolescents and can such data be coded in a way that they can be identified in different information systems? This problem was exposed when we tried to collect data on rare diseases, where we encounter different registers, which were not comparable with each other. This is a question primarily for a variety of computer companies selling EHR programs. The issue will be discussed at the group of rare diseases. 

It was mentioned that if the 2 working groups would like to merge, it must be first changes in the status.

In the ethics groups meeting, there is a new set of EU regulations concerning data transfer. We cannot hand out data without permission of the patient / parents.

Tertiary Care

Robert reported what was discussed with in the group:

• Chair of the group was elected (Rob Ross Russell)

All approves the elections

• The list of paediatric subspecialties

Approval of the list to take back to the UEMS

• Syllabi in metabolic, rheumatology and infectious diseases

Not enough ND to permit therefore we are bringing forward to the GA to vote on the paediatric syllabus in metabolic medicine

• Training assessment and how we might go forward 

The tasks are as follows: 

• Approval of the list pf specialties

Voting took place on the following items:

• Approval of the metabolic syllabus – All approved. 

The process has always been that the specialist society in collaboration with the EAP produces a syllabus.

That syllabus is then presented to the tertiary group of the EASP where we review it, we pass comments and make recommendations etc. When the tertiary care is happy, the important part is that syllabus is then presented to the GA for them to approve and be part of the EUMS voting that this is an appropriate syllabus. This goes on the major GA at the UEMS. 

Adamos added that all the subspecialties admitted there syllabi to the EAP and have been approved by the EAP. 

Tom commented that it is important that the UEMS sees that the syllabi, done by the subspecialties, has to pass by the EAP. We want to make sure that the UEMS will understand and recognise that it must go through the EAP/UEMS.

 Max commented that by voting to accept the list is of subspecialty a very formal and is the right thing to do, by that we also have very good argument when we go back to our countries. 

• Approval of the list of the subspecialty group to bring forward to the UEMS- all agreed
  One substantial

• Discussion about PICU training will be brought to a future meeting as an agenda item.
• Wording about the duration of training will be adapted to ensure clarity. The discussion document will then be submitted to the General Assembly for ratification.
• The Chair of the group will write to the specialist societies encouraging them to offer training centre accreditation (where wanted) and to ensure EAP representation on such groups.
• Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases syllabi will be circulated by March ahead of discussion at the next meeting.

Junior Doctors

Caroline Brackel gave a report on the junior doctors and the work that is done in the Netherlands.

Caroline proposed the following:

• Have a Representative of Junior Paediatricians in EAP
• Contact between National Pediatric junior sections
• Collaboration EAP and junior sections in issues of shared interests

Adamos informed that a representative of the junior doctors is very welcome to join the EAP however he/she must be appointed by their association. Furthermore in the last 3 years the representative of the junior doctors was invited to take part in the EC meeting.

Adamos recommended contacting Indre to find away how to appoint the new representative.

Rare disease

Lisbeth reported:

1. Remind everyone that there rare disease group is in the European commission and is part of the directory. Therefore it is Important to report what is been done.
   Next meeting will be in Aprils, if there is anything to report please send an e mail to Lisbeth.
2. We were asked to get your attention on the expert centres and reference networks.
   Lisbeth put the links on the website so you are asked to response.
3. We are still in rare best practice program FP7 project, this is the last year. There is still money to spend. We have proposed a working group in Geneva, and we hope it can take place.

All the information will be on the EAP website.

 Advocacy working groups

Results of the EAPRASnet survey were presented.

Advocacy will write a statement with the most updates results of the survey.

EAPRASnet

Zachi reported the possibility to established a more advanced EAPRASnet

Ethics

David was absent however Tom thanked David for his hard work and dedication also for the recent publication. David has done a lot of publications on behalf of the EAP and the Ethics group.

Vaccination

Different activities like the paper on the Japan crisis.

Talking about building a vaccine network

A statement should be formulates regarding refugees vaccination

Hans is asking for Co -workers.

Lia from Greece will be the new Co – Chair.

Liaison Officer

Stefano explained his role as the liaison officer: The Liaison Officer is responsible for relations with the other European Organizations focusing on Children Health and also, importantly, with the European Institutions and its members and the Press Office.

3 Press releases have been published.

2 interviews have been done and the 3^rd is on its way.

In the current website there is a press release corner.

 Another change to enlarge our dues has  been the participation in MOCHA.

There are 64 deliverables in the MOCHA project, 20 of them will be in the form of official reports to the European Commission.  The representation is from all European countries.

MOCHA County Agents:

It is a very nice option for all delegates to offer your support to your country agents knowing that EAP is willing to support this project. This can be a major contribution by the EAP.

Stefano brought to attention that there are a lot of organizations which are powerful and do lobbying, and have a lot of money and talk about children’s but there are no pediatricians involved, we should be in contact with them. These associations have a list of supports with hundred members in the EU parliament. 

Stefano called for anyone who is willing to collaborate and work together with the PR Company is welcome.

We need the different groups to give statement etc. provide at least 1 or two papers. 

Admoas thanked Stefano for all his time and effort and hard work.

Upcoming meetings 

EAPS 2016 Geneva will take place in October.

The same platform as the previous year where there are 3 main societies EAP, ESPNIC, ESPR, there are as well other European societies involved which are providing scientific input but they are not fully participating.

The program is in progress and will be finalized these days. Letter will be sent to the speakers.

The influence of EAP and the input has been increases.

EAP spring meeting 2016

Martin gave information about the meeting; all the information will be available on the website. 

EAP spring meeting 2017

Ana presented Algarve- Faro Vilamoura to hold the 2017 spring meeting.

Al agreed to have the meeting in Algarve, portugal.

Voting

Voting for the 3 positions took place (One country one vote)

There was only one candidate for each post.

• President- Tom Stiris
• Vice president- Stefano del Torso
• Chair EBP – Jean Christophe Mercier

Adamos announced the results. All three were elected. Tom Stiris is the President, Stefano del Torso the Vice president and Jean Christophe Mercier the Chair EBP for another two years.