In May, EFA office finalised the new questionnaire outlining the guidelines for minimum standardisation of care for COPD patients in Europe. The questionnaire was sent to all EFA members representing COPD patients who are kindly asked to complete the survey for final evaluation.

Our partners ERS, Almirall, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi and Novartis can support EFA members on national level in case they need help finding relevant references to answer all questions in the questionnaire.

If you know our partners’ national contacts, feel free to contact them directly. If not, please do not hesitate to ask EFA Project and Fundraising Officer Antje Fink-Wagner for our partners’ national contact details.

New free Allergy Track app launched

Allergy Track is a new mobile app which helps people suffering from allergy to stay on track with their allergic and respiratory symptoms during critical periods and helps measuring the impact of their allergy. It has been developed by Stallergenes with voluntary input from the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA), which received no profit for its role. This mobile app follows the evolution of allergic disease and enables patients to:

• report an allergic episode to evaluate symptoms’ intensity and frequency
• measure the impact of their allergy on their activities
• consult their diary  to check the evolution of their condition
• receive alerts when allergy season begins
• find tips to avoid or minimize exposure to respiratory allergens

The application can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

Results of the AirPROM AGM published

Main outcomes, discoveries and future objectives of the AirPROM projects discussed at its Annual General Meeting in April in Barcelona were now published. The AGM brought together people from different professional backgrounds including scientists, doctors, IT experts, mathematicians and patient representatives. The main aims of the meeting were:

• to update members on progress within each group working on different parts of the project, known as ‘work packages’
• to deepen the integration and collaboration among all work packages (WPs)
• to discuss current issues and how to resolve them
• to identify future objectives

AirPROM has entered in its 3^rd year and has already achieved many objectives, and made some interesting discoveries. These and other key results will be confirmed and presented through academic publications and knowledge sharing platforms, such as the partner project eTRIKS.

The main challenge faced by the researchers continues to be integrating models and making them work in practice. The focus of the project now is to integrate the WPs, develop reliable computer models and turn them into useful tools for clinicians and patients, which can lead to personalised treatment of patients.

For more information check the projects website.

The Finnish Allergy and Asthma Federation succeeded in stirring the Finnish government into adopting a general position on the Tobacco Product Directive proposed by the European Commission in December 2012. Following a letter sent by the director of the association Ilkka Repo, the Finnish government prepared a position paper for the Finnish Parliament and declared that their position is in line with the Finnish Allergy and Asthma Federation’s priorities.

EFA’s Finnish member is advocating for minimizing the burden of tobacco use in Europe. They support the Commission’s proposal on plain packaging and pictorial warnings, ban on flavouring and misleading features such a slim cigarettes in order to reduce their attractiveness to young people. However, FAAF would appreciate if the Directive was even tighter.

In a reply to FAAF’s letter, the Finnish government endorsed the Commission’s proposal and praised its aim at improving the functioning of the internal market as well as promoting public health and protecting consumers. Stricter regulations of ingredients were considered appropriate, but clearer distinctions would be appreciated.

The position of Finland on mandatory pictorial warnings on tobacco packs is favourable and the government would seek the introduction of such features in the whole EU. According to the Finnish government this should not be left to Member states consideration, but it should be managed on the EU level.

Last but not least, cross border selling of tobacco should be totally banned. The Government believes that the new tobacco product groups placing on the market should be completely prevented and special attention should also be paid to e-cigarette devices’ safety.

EFA welcomes this opinion and will continue its advocacy for strengthen provisions in the proposed Directive.

Allergy UK launches Nurses Appeal

Allergy UK has launched a £1million appeal to put specialist allergy nurses into the heart of local communities across the UK.  The leading national charity is aiming to raise a minimum £1million so that, with the help of our supporters, we can begin to make a significant difference to allergy sufferers.

Allergy UK is leading the fight against allergy. If you would like to find out more about the Nurses Appeal visit our website or watch our video.

World Asthma Day 2013 in Ireland – Fighting asthma with every breath 

An alliance of medical and environmental experts has joined forces on World Asthma Day to call for a sustained commitment to cleaner air in Ireland. The launch of the alliance comes in the aftermath of announcement by Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government that he sees a ban on smoky coal being implemented within the next three years.

Commenting on the Minister’s proposals, members of the new national INHALE Alliance (Ireland Needs Healthier Air and Lower Emissions) have called for speedy implementation of the ban, to best protect the health and well-being of people who suffer from asthma, and the population as a whole.

Formed by the Asthma Society of Ireland, the INHALE Alliance came together in recent weeks, having separately advocated for cleaner air across Ireland. Members of the Alliance have been drawn from the fields of medicine, science and the environment and they have jointly welcomed the intention to ban smoky coal on an all-island basis.

Since smoky coal was banned in Dublin in 1990, there has been improved life expectancy and overall benefits for the health of the population. This has meant a reduction of deaths in the order of one less death per day, because of a brave decision taken 23 years ago. This announcement by the Minister for the Environment means that people across the island of Ireland will shortly be able to breathe clean air.

People who suffer from respiratory conditions such as asthma can be badly affected by exposure to harmful particles in the air which result from pollutants, including the burning of smoky coal. These harmful particles can trigger and exacerbate conditions such as asthma, particularly during wintertime.

Sharon Cosgrove, CEO of the Asthma Society of Ireland welcomed the announcement as positive news for the 470,000 people with asthma in Ireland. She said: “We are delighted that the Minister intends to introduce a ban on smoky coal across the state within the next 3 years. It is appropriate that this announcement has been made during the EU-designated Year of Air and coincides with the Asthma Society’s World Asthma Day campaign, Fighting asthma with every breath. Asthma is the most common chronic disease in Ireland, with approximately half a million sufferers, and Ireland has the fourth highest prevalence of asthma worldwide. We warmly welcome this progressive decision to eliminate dangerous pollutants in the air which exacerbate and trigger this potentially fatal condition.”

In forming the INHALE Alliance, the Asthma Society of Ireland also recognises the need for expedited implementation of the National Asthma Programme.

World Asthma Day in Spain

On May 7 EFA’s Spanish member, the National Federation of Respiratory Disease Associations (FENAER), celebrated the World Asthma Day at St. Mary of Apostles schools in Jaén with various activities:

• spirometry measuring
• inhalers’ management workshop
• presentations from FENAER and ALERJA

These activities were focused on the educational community, partners and stakeholders dealing with health issues. ALERJA celebrated the World Asthma day in collaboration with the Department of Pneumology at the Ciudad de Jaén hospital.

RESPIRA news

In 2013 RESPIRA has been working hard on several projects. RESPIRA’s Work Plan and Budget for 2013 were discussed and approved at the General Assembly in 2012, setting down the following objectives:

• increasing RESPIRA’s membership;
• developing partnership with private and public institutions in order to promote and disseminate information on COPD to health care professionals, schools and employees;
• publications – fliers on use of medication, pneumonia, impact of exercise and healthy diet, health risk related to tobacco use;
• publication of RESPIRA’s Newsletter (4 times a year) and updating of our website;
• work together with the Parliament and Ministry of health on issues related to access to health care, best practices in health care, raising awareness of respiratory diseases;
• enhance collaboration with our partners.

External activities involved dissemination of information on COPD and public events focused on smoking cessation and spirometry. RESPIRA also won a TV prize and one of our ambassadors did an interview on his experience as an ex-smoker.

In May, EFA office finalised the new questionnaire outlining the guidelines for minimum standardisation of care for COPD patients in Europe. The questionnaire was sent to all EFA members representing COPD patients who are kindly asked to complete the survey for final evaluation.

Our partners ERS, Almirall, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi and Novartis can support EFA members on national level in case they need help finding relevant references to answer all questions in the questionnaire.

If you know our partners’ national contacts, feel free to contact them directly. If not, please do not hesitate to ask EFA Project and Fundraising Officer Antje Fink-Wagner for our partners’ national contact details.

New free Allergy Track app launched

Allergy Track is a new mobile app which helps people suffering from allergy to stay on track with their allergic and respiratory symptoms during critical periods and helps measuring the impact of their allergy. It has been developed by Stallergenes with voluntary input from the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA), which received no profit for its role. This mobile app follows the evolution of allergic disease and enables patients to:

• report an allergic episode to evaluate symptoms’ intensity and frequency
• measure the impact of their allergy on their activities
• consult their diary  to check the evolution of their condition
• receive alerts when allergy season begins
• find tips to avoid or minimize exposure to respiratory allergens

The application can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

Results of the AirPROM AGM published

Main outcomes, discoveries and future objectives of the AirPROM projects discussed at its Annual General Meeting in April in Barcelona were now published. The AGM brought together people from different professional backgrounds including scientists, doctors, IT experts, mathematicians and patient representatives. The main aims of the meeting were:

• to update members on progress within each group working on different parts of the project, known as ‘work packages’
• to deepen the integration and collaboration among all work packages (WPs)
• to discuss current issues and how to resolve them
• to identify future objectives

AirPROM has entered in its 3^rd year and has already achieved many objectives, and made some interesting discoveries. These and other key results will be confirmed and presented through academic publications and knowledge sharing platforms, such as the partner project eTRIKS.

The main challenge faced by the researchers continues to be integrating models and making them work in practice. The focus of the project now is to integrate the WPs, develop reliable computer models and turn them into useful tools for clinicians and patients, which can lead to personalised treatment of patients.

For more information check the projects website.

More than 1360 amendments to the new Tobacco Product Directive, which is currently being discussed at the European Parliament, were tabled in May 2013. EFA is going to have a look at all of them and advocate for those which will help to put people off smoking and relieve the burden for patients already suffering from respiratory diseases.

Amendments were discussed on May 30 at the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament meeting.

The proposal was also discussed at the Council working party meeting and at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) – the EESC Bureau eventually decided to postpone adoption of the opinion on the Directive to July plenary session.

More information can be found here.

Workshop on electronic cigarettes

On the 7^th of May, a workshop on electronic cigarettes was organised at the European Parliament in Brussels. The voices of the Commission and the World Health Organisation, together with national regulators, scientists and vapers (or e-cigarette users), were heard. EFA has been advocating for a stronger Tobacco Products Directive and was represented at the event by EU Policy Officer Roberta Savli.

Many Members of the European Parliament took active part in the lively discussion. For some, electronic cigarettes should not be regulated under any special framework and only respect the requirement of the general safety of products directive. Others think that they should be considered medicinal devices while some people believe that they should have the same treatment as other nicotine replacements.

EFA shares the concern of WHO and believes that electronic cigarettes should be regulated as soon as possible to guarantee at the best their safety and efficacy for European citizens.

More information can be found here. You can also see what MEPs think about e-cigarettes regulation here.

Call for more regulation on tobacco products

In May, the Parliament’s Magazine devoted its #5Qs interview session to tobacco regulation and interviewed rapporteur Linda McAvan. EFA took the opportunity and submitted questions for the MEP on-line.

McAvan expressed her support of pictorial warnings, regulation of e-cigarettes and pre-authorization process of new tobacco products in the interview. EFA supports the MEP on plain packaging and pictorial warnings which can put people off smoking before they even start. The learn more, watch the interview here.

Workshop on tobacco: Do tobacco control measures reduce tobacco use?

On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2013 in May, the WHO has invited MEPs, stakeholders and NGOs to discuss whether tobacco measures reduce tobacco use at the European Parliament. EFA will be represented at the event by EU Policy Officer Roberta Savli who has been monitoring the development in the proposed Tobacco Product Directive closely.

At the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to discuss and review scientific evidence on the effectiveness of key measures to reduce smoking. Special attention will be paid to issues addressed by the revision of the EU Tobacco Product directive. A roundtable discussion will follow the experience of various countries such as Turkey and Brazil and the role of NGOs will be taken into consideration as well.

On May 30 the ENVI Committee discussed amendments to the proposed Tobacco Product Directive, which is currently being discussed at the European Parliament. More than 1360 amendments were tabled and EFA is going to have a look at all of them and advocate for those which will help to put people off smoking and relieve the burden for patients already suffering from respiratory diseases.

The proposal was also discussed at the Council working party meeting and at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) – the EESC Bureau eventually decided to postpone adoption of the opinion on the Directive to July plenary session.

In May, the regulation of electronic cigarettes, tobacco control measures and plain packaging dominated the public debate regarding the TPD. For more information, check the special section devoted to the proposed Tobacco Product Directive in our May e-zine.

Medical Devices Regulation

The ENVI Committee and the IMCO Committee of the European Parliament discussed amendments to the Medical Devices Regulation on May 29. MEPs proposed more than 900 amendments to the regulation, most of them focused on the pre-authorisation procedure of medical devices, definition of single use products, reprocessing and monitoring of notified bodies.

Many different opinions arose. As the rapporteur responsible for the dossier Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (S&D) pointed out, it is going to be hard to find a compromise. EFA will continue monitoring this topic very closely to ensure that the perspectives of people with allergy and respiratory diseases are taken into consideration, while patients’ safety and involvement are enhanced and transparency strengthened.

Watch the meeting on-line here.

Clinical Trials Regulation

On May 29 the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament voted on report on the Clinical Trials Regulation prepared by rapporteur Glenis Willmott (S&D).  The regulation focuses on patients’ safety and aims at enhancing transparency of trial results. EFA is supporting the European Patients Forum (EPF) position statement on this issue, emphasising the need to ensure that patients involvement is strengthened and their safety guaranteed.

Watch the vote on-line here.

Can EU citizens afford their medicines? That was the main topic of a full-day event organised by the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) at the European Parliament on May 16. The conference hosted by MEP Alejandro Cercas “Can EU citizens afford their medicines? The economic crisis and access to medicines in Europe” attracted several stakeholders, policy-makers and patients’ organisations including EFA represented by EU Policy Officer Roberta Savli.

Access to medicines is fundamental for patients both in terms of affordability and availability and all patients in Europe should have access to the same medicines. In times of economic crisis, however, these two elements are hindered as the budget spent on health decreases.

Several options on how to overcome these problems have been presented including new evidence-based systems of deciding on reimbursement and access, such as health technology assessment (HTA).

More information here.

Improving care for COPD patients

After the ERS European COPD Audit found out that the quality of care delivered to patients in Europe varies unacceptably between and within Member States, a joint conference was organised by the European Respiratory Society and the British Thoracic Society on “Improving hospital care of COPD patients: designing European COPD care bundles” on May 9 in London.

With the objective of identifying ways to improve care for COPD patients, core European admission and discharge care bundles were identified. Stakeholders’ collaboration was found extremely useful and patients’ voice was heard by healthcare professionals.

They were mainly advocating for lung sports and self-helping-groups to be inserted in the discharge bundle. EFA was represented by the President Breda Flood, COPD Working Group Chair Michael Wilken and EU Policy Officer Roberta Savli.

Roadmap for systems medicine for Europe

The CaSYM project, funded by the EU 7^th Framework Programme for Research, held their stakeholder conference developing roadmap for systems medicine 14-15 May in St Andrews University, Scotland. Susanna Palkonen took part in the working group on public health, which concluded that it would be useful if the ‘systems medicine’ approach – comprehensive and multidisciplinary – would be developed and used for public health issues, especially prevention compiled with participation of patients and citizens. The presentations from the meeting are available here and EFA looks forward patient centred road map for systems medicine.

Effects of poor indoor air quality on our health

In May the European Ventilation Industry Association (EVIA) held their annual general meeting and EFA was invited to speak at the event on the link between indoor air quality, health and ventilation.

EU Policy Officer Roberta Savli presented EFA’s advocacy activities in the field of indoor air quality and the reasons why this topic is of crucial importance for people that already suffer from allergy or respiratory diseases.

Recommendations for future policy developments from patients’ perspective, both at the national and the EU level, were presented. The presentation is available here.

IMI Stakeholder Forum 2013 in Brussels

It is thanks to patients that our research can move forward. This is one of the conclusions drawn from the IMI Stakeholder Forum 2013 which took place in May in Brussels. EFA, represented by EU Policy and Programme Assistant Tereza Reznakova, attended the event together with other 250 professionals working in the field of health policy, medicines research and patients’ rights advocacy.

As May 2013 was declared the Month of the Brain by the European Commission, the meeting was dedicated to brain research and IMI’s place in the European Research Area.

At the vent, the MEP Françoise Grossetête spoke about the European Parliament’s view of the innovation in medicines research and Director-General for Research and Innovation Robert-Jan Smits gave a presentation on the Commission’s position and involvement in development of new medicines. A need for cooperation between different disciplines and more extensive involvement of patients was highlighted by most of the speakers. It was declared that SMEs and universities will become more involved in the innovative research in the future.

The event closed with a keynote speech by Nobel Laureate Rolf Zinkernagel who focused on immunology research and spoke on vaccination and future developments in this area.

More information can be found here. To watch the entire conference on-line, follow this link.

Patients’ Involvement in Health Policies in Europe

On the 7^th European Patients’ Rights Day EFA, represented by EU Policy and Programme Assistant Tereza Reznakova, attended the “European Citizens’ Rights: Patients’ Involvement and Cross Border Care” conference in Brussels. The event organised by the Active Citizenship Network was focused on the Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross Border Care and its implementation in the national in all Member States.

The conference aimed at supporting civic organisation to actively take part in the transposition of the Directive into national systems of all Member states. Speakers shared their experience and best practices regarding the involvement of patients’ and civic organisation in the whole process.

The MEP Antonyia Parvanova gave an overview of the Directive and promised to work on a new legal text which will further strengthen patients’ rights not included in this Directive.  “We have to be ambitious. We have to ensure patients’ access to good quality care and tackle inequalities between Member states,” the MEP declared. Director General of DG Health and Consumers Paola Testori-Coggi then highlighted benefits the EU brings to patients.

Representatives from different European countries shared their experience on patients’ organisations involvement in the transposition of the new Directive in the legal framework of individual Member states. As result, it was noted that the situation in the EU varies significantly and the problem of so-called health tourism was brought up to discussion as well.

The role of patients was also discussed at the conference. Participants of the panel discussion pointed out that patients should be involved from the beginning, it is not enough to add the patients at the end of the whole process.

The conference was also an occasion to present the report “The Patients’ involvement in health policies in Europe” prepared by Cittadinanzattiva.

To learn more, check this website.

EFA attended a conference on malnutrition as a critical health priority

EFA Executive Officer Susanna Palkonen took part in the “Effective healthcare requires good nutritional care” conference focused on the problem of malnutrition in older people and patients suffering from chronic diseases. The aim of the event organised by several patients’ organisations was to alert European governments to take action to secure good nutritional care to prevent unnecessary health complications.

At the conference a call to action entitled “Every Patient Deserves Good Nutritional Care” was launched.  The document asks implementation of the following actions: raising public awareness and education, introduction of mandatory screenings for patients admitted to hospitals, setting national nutritional quality standards and introduction of mandatory nutritional training for all healthcare professionals.

Patients’ participation was also highlighted at the event, and EPF and EGAN presented a booklet “Patients’ Perspective on Nutrition”. “In this booklet the collective experience of patient experts and nutritional scientists is shared. And so, it will contribute towards better healthcare and quality of life for Europe’s patients,” Nicola Bedlington from EPF said.

The problem of malnutrition is crucial also for patients EFA represents. People suffering from COPD are at a risk of frailty and need nutritious food. Patients having a food allergy may have hard time getting the nutrients they need because of restrictions in their diet.

More information here.

EPF’s AGM highlighted the role of patients’ representatives

In May EFA’s Susanna Palkonen, Vice President of EPF, also attended the Annual General Meeting of the European Patients’ Forum (EPF) in Dublin. EPF celebrated there its 10th anniversary with a special quest – Commissioner for Health & Consumers Tonio Borg. In his speech, Commissioner praised patient organisations’ work in Europe: “In 10 years patients organisations have played a critical and valuable role in advocating for patients’ rights,” Borg said.

He also added that patients have a critical role in advising policymakers, because healthcare systems are here for patients and not the other way around. In order to ensure the best possible care for patients all across Europe, it is necessary to promote proper education for all healthcare professionals.

EFA has been advocating for Allerogology education together with UEMS, EAACI and ARIA and in May published an Allergy alert paper requesting endorsement of changes to healthcare systems in Europe in order to secure the best possible care for patients suffering from allergy.

To learn more, check this website.

FA attends Advisory Board Meetings

EFA Membership and Programme Officer, David Brennan, was invited to Mainz, Germany by Boehringer Ingelheim to participate in a Patient Advisory Board Meeting on asthma along with other patient representatives from asthma associations around the world. Discussion topics revolved around:

1. current issues around asthma control among patients,
2. information sources and communication to patients,
3. language used in patient communications.

Patient representatives admitted asthma could be described as a relatively ‘boring’ or ‘ordinary’ disease because consequences of being asthmatic are not necessarily considered ‘serious’ or ‘life threatening’ as in the case of other chronic diseases.

Indeed, famous celebrities are often reluctant to admit they have asthma or act as a spokesperson for it as they may believe it would be a sign of weakness.  Discussions addressed what needs to occur in order for asthma to be taken seriously, especially since it affects patients very differently in severity and evolution as a disease over time.

In discussing how information to patients can be improved, wide agreement persisted in strengthening the role of patient organisations as a middle ground for channelling correct information to patients. The patient association exists in a middle ground, where patients may be more likely to trust information they read as many employees and volunteers of patient associations are, or are closer to, the patients themselves.

Green Week conference 2013 will be devoted to AIR QUALITY

The 13th edition of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environment policy, will take place in Brussels from 4 – 7 June 2013. In the light of the European Year of Air the event will be devoted to AIR QUALITY this year.

Even though the quality of air has improved significantly over the past few decades, air pollution still poses a risk to our health, triggers respiratory diseases and aggravates asthma and COPD. This is why the conference will be opened with an introductory session on “Cleaner air for all” – dealing with policies for EU and beyond.

At the conference, scientific evidence will be given by the WHO, participants will discuss main pollutants, monitoring of pollution, emissions, climate change and air quality and its impacts on European citizens and the environment.

This year there will also be a special session devoted to the indoor air pollution. The workshop “There is only one air: better indoor air for better health” organised in cooperation with DG SANCO will concentrate on the quality of air which we breathe inside buildings.

At the occasion of the European Year of Air, Joint Research Centre (JRC) will also launch a special website dedicated to indoor air quality.

For more information about the conference, click here.

EFA in other meetings

EFA President also participated in the 3rd Scientific Meeting of our primary care partner, International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) focused on the development of care for COPD patients, and our member Swedish Asthma and Allergy Organisations’ Congress, both in Uppsala, Sweden.

On the World Asthma Day of May 7, 2013 the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patient’s Associations (EFA) handed over an Allergy Alert Paper to the European Commission and the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament. This paper prepared together with the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) and Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impacts on Asthma (ARIA) requests endorsement of changes to healthcare systems across Europe in order to help patients suffering from allergy to have a proper diagnosis of their disease.

Nowadays, primary care, or general practitioners, are the ones who are seeing allergy patients most routinely. However, they often lack the knowledge in allergy and don’t understand how a proper diagnosis can improve the quality of life of their patients. Despite the fact that allergies affect more than 60 million people in all European countries, there is an alarming deficit and growing disparity in the number of allergists and number of severe allergy patients. In many European countries there are not enough allergists and general practitioners who are able to diagnose the disease at an early stage. This extremely worrisome trend has to be changed.

Representatives of EFA, EEACI and UEMS therefore travelled to Luxemburg to call on policymakers to change the system of Allergology education in Europe. At the meeting with DG SANCO officials (Directorate-General for Health and Consumers), EFA President Breda Flood briefly presented the objectives of the Alert Paper, and Antonella Muraro (EAACI) and Jacques Gayraud (UEMS) added  perspectives from their respective organisations. Since Michael Hübel from DG SANCO confirmed his attendance at the EAACI-WAO conference this June in Milan, a reply to the paper from the European Commission is expected to be presented at EFA’s symposium on June 26^th from 10h30 – 12h00.

Mr. Hübel informed EFA that DG SANCO is currently working on three packages on chronic diseases and he also pointed out that, first of all, the financial framework of the EU has to be approved before DG SANCO can start working on new packages. According to him, such a project requires support from and involvement of all Member states – otherwise the objective cannot be achieved.

The Allergy Alert paper can be found here. EFA also prepared a press release which can be found here.

EFA’s Call to Action on respiratory Allergies in Europe

Join EFA and its partners in calling on policymakers to improve healthcare for allergy patients and provide support for medical experts of allergy. If you haven’t done so already, sign EFA’s Call to Action and helps us raise awareness, increase the ability to identify early symptoms and provide early diagnosis. With this initiative we have a chance to change the situation in Europe and set a precedent to follow. EFA would thus like to ask all members to distribute the Call to Action among their national partners and help EFA collect more signatures.

The Call to Action was also promoted at the American Thoracic Society Meeting in Philadelphia which took place from May 17 to May 23 2013. Sign the Call to Action now!

• report an allergic episode to evaluate symptoms’ intensity and frequency
• measure the impact of their allergy on their activities
• consult their diary  to check the evolution of their condition
• receive alerts when allergy season begins
• find tips to avoid or minimize exposure to respiratory allergens

The application can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

Watch the video here: AllergyTrack_EN final

On this World Asthma Day of May 7, 2013 the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patient’s Associations (EFA), the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) and Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impacts on Asthma (ARIA) are handing over an Allergy Alert Paper to the European Commission and to the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament.

EFA, EAACI, UEMS and ARIA jointly request the European Commission and the European Parliament to endorse changes to healthcare systems across Europe in order to help patients suffering from allergy to have a proper diagnosis of their disease. Nowadays, primary care practitioners (PCPs) are the ones who are seeing allergy patients most routinely. However, they often lack the knowledge in allergy and don’t understand how a proper diagnose can improve the quality of life of their patients.

“We are therefore requesting one single model of education for physicians European-wide which will help building a base for earlier diagnosis of allergy. PCPs have to be included in allergy education to be able to identify that a patient is at risk, manage the first diagnosis and send difficult cases to a specialist,” EFA president Breda Flood explains. If by 2040 every second citizen in the EU suffers from allergy and PCPs are unable to recognise and treat this disease, then we would need many more specialists.

In order to improve the care of patients and relieve the pressure mounting on medical community in Europe, which is deprived of adequate education in the field, the European Commission and the ENVI Committee of the European Parliament should introduce the following fundamental changes to healthcare systems across Europe regarding pre- and postgraduate medical education:

1. The formal recognition of a full medical specialty in Allergology and of a formally recognized sub-specialty of Pediatric-Allergology throughout all EU member countries.
2. The increase in quality and the harmonization of education for allergists and PCPs.
3. The development and implementation of an educational model of Allergology in Medical Schools across Europe.

According to the Global Allergy and Asthma Network of Excellence, it is estimated that the annual cost of asthma in Europe is over € 18 billion and allergic rhinitis may cost up to € 100 billion. Recognition of a common educational curriculum in all EU countries and the harmonization of education for allergologists across Europe would thus bring benefits not only to allergy patients, but also to society. Mutual recognition of Allergology among all Member states could be the first step.

Help EFA’s effort to relieve the burden of respiratory allergies on European societies by signing the Call to Action today!

EFA Press Release WAD Allergy Alert

Allergy Alert Paper