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President's message 2007
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By Lukas Radbruch, President EAPC -2007-2011
Welcome message from the new President
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Dear member,
The 10th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in June 2007 in Budapest has been a great success. More than 2000 participants have discussed issues from symptom control to ethical decision making. The congress has been the first EAPC-congress held in a Central or Eastern European country. The high quality of the scientific programme, but also the enjoyable setting and the splendid organisation of the local organizing committee from the Hungarian Palliative Care Association ensured that the congress participants were thoroughly pleased not only with the congress, but also with Budapest and Hungary. The list of participants has shown the ongoing development of palliative care in developing as well as developed countries. However, the presentations at the congress pointed out how much there is still to do in many countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Those of our members and readers who had not the chance to attend the congress can soon find a report and a lot of follow up information clicking here.
In Budapest the new Board of Directors has started its term following the elections at the General Assembly of EAPC on the 8th June 2007. Board members for the term 2007 to 2011 are Michaela Bercovitch, Augusto Caraceni, Tine De Vlieger, Pam Firth, Katalin Hegedus, Maria Nabal, Silvio Necchi, Sheila Payne, Lukas Radbruch, André Rhebergen, Esther Schmidlin, Per Sjøgren, Carol Tishelman and Chantal Wood.
The first meeting of the new board has given me the honor to be elected as new President of EAPC. I would like to start work with a big thank you to the board members who stood down from the board, having completed their term: Carlos Centeno, Marilene Filbert, Lucille Hacpille, Stein Kaasa, Phil Larkin and Francoise Porchet. They have dedicated time and energy to EAPC, and without their ongoing commitment and enthusiasm many projects of EAPC would not have been possible. Special thanks belong to Stein Kaasa and Marilene Filbet, who worked as presidents of EAPC relentlessly for the last 8 years. It seems a great challenge for me to take on the presidency following these leaders in the field! More information on the results of work of the last years can be found at https://eapcnet.org/membersonly/genass.asp and the whole EAPC web.
At the Budapest congress the EAPC in collaboration with the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) has initiated a new campaign on political advocacy: the Budapest Commitments. This is a collaborative programme collecting and supporting the national palliative care associations to define national goals for hospice and palliative care development for the next two years. Many of these national goals will be based on deficits and weaknesses described in the Atlas of Palliative Care that has been published by the EAPC Task Force on Development of Palliative Care in Europe chaired by Carlos Centeno.
Please visit our website regularly, as it is updated frequently. I would like to invite you to participate in the work of EAPC, communicating with other experts in the field at the EAPC congresses, but also more closely in the projects and task forces of EAPC. The association thrives by the energy of its members, and the great success of EAPC is the result of the ongoing commitment of its members.
Lukas Radbruch
EAPC President
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