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Report 3rd Research Forum of the EAPC
Stresa, Italy, 3-6 June 2004
To
view the scientific programme and the presented abstracts, please
go to: www.eapcnet.org/Research2004
Introduction
The Research Steering and Scientific Committee had chosen the
main theme of “Methodology of Research in Palliative Care”
for its third forum, in order to underline the difference between
the EAPC research Forum and the General EAPC Congresses.
Scientific
Programme
The Scientific Programme was built up following 4 main aims.
- Be
the meeting point for experienced researchers.
-
Educate and encourage young researchers
-
Present as much new information as possible and give young
researchers space and visibility
-
Include and encourage clinical studies as well as qualitative
and non clinical research
The
Scientific Committee decided to include only two Plenary
Sessions, one traditional with two keynote speakers
and one Plenary round table. All the rest of the programme
was built by 27 sessions of four different types organised
in parallel in 3 to 4 halls.
5 Workshops
The purpose was to give participants the opportunity to explore
knowledge and skills at an advanced level and to develop a
critical understanding in research in the form of “open
discussions” with experts to introduce the topics. No
free communications were included.
9 Education sessions
The purpose was to give participants the opportunity
to learn about key concepts in research on different topics.
These more basic “teaching” sessions were organised
by at least two coordinators / teachers. No free communications
were included.
11 New research data sessions
These sessions were organised as “free communication”
sessions, with a maximum of 8 selected abstracts 15 minutes
each, discussion included, moderated by two or three chairs.
2 Poster Discussion sessions
These sessions were organised on the second and the
third day of the Forum. The chairs selected 12 of the posters
from Friday 4 June and 9 of those from Saturday 5 June and
invited their authors to present and discuss their poster.
All authors invited to present their posters attended the
session. Those posters are listed in the scientific programme
online (http://www.eapcnet.org/research2004/Programme/default.asp).
In addition the programme offered two satellite lunch symposia
and two satellite workshops.
53 invited speakers contributed to the success of the scientific
programme as Chairs, coordinators and speakers.
308 Abstracts were submitted. They had been
classified into the groups listed in table 1 and had been
sent to two independent reviewers. The Scientific Committee
had made the final selections of the posters and oral presentations
based on the reviewers’ scores. The selected abstracts
(both oral and poster) were published in “Palliative
Medicine”, issue 18 (4) 2004.
76 abstracts had been selected to create the 11 New research
Data sessions while other 4 presentations were selected for
a workshop. 211 had been selected for poster presentations.
9 Abstracts had been rejected an 8 abstracts had been withdrawn
prior to the printing of the abstract book. The posters selected
had the following distribution by categories. Unfortunately
of those 34 posters had not been presented at place.
Table
1
| Abstract
Categories |
Selected
for programme |
Missing |
effectively
presented |
| Assessment |
24 |
2 |
22 |
| Basic
Research |
8 |
1 |
7 |
| Epidemiology |
6 |
2 |
4 |
| Family
and Bereavement |
14 |
0 |
14 |
| Methodology |
52 |
8 |
44 |
| Ethics |
8 |
1 |
7 |
| Other |
15 |
0 |
15 |
| Policy
and Organisation |
44 |
10 |
34 |
| Symptoms |
40 |
10 |
30 |
| TOTAL
|
211 |
34 |
177 |
The
four reviewers who had chosen the posters for the discussion
sessions also selected the three best posters to
receive the EAPC Award. The posters were presented at the
closing session and their authors received free registration
to the 9th Congress
of the EAPC to be held in Aachen 6 to 10 April 2005.
The winners were:
Peter Hudson (Australia) Positive consequences of supporting
a dying relative: findings from a randomized controlled trial
Carol Thomas (United Kingdom) Place of Death: Preferences
Among Cancer Patients and their Carers
Ulrika Kreicbergs (Sweden) Ethics and Statistics
A Population-based Nationwide Study on Parents’ Perception
of a Questionnaire on Their Child’s Death in Cancer
(can also be viewed at: http://www.eapcnet.org/research2004/Programme/sunday_closing.asp)
For the first time the pre-registered participants had the
possibility to built their personalised programme (programme
at a glance) online before the Event by indicating their preferences
for the sessions to attend. This also helped to reduce the
risk of crowded halls.
Lesson learned for the future: The coffee and lunch breaks
need to be longer in order to give more time to the participants
for poster viewing and informal communication.
CME accreditation
The Forum is accredited by the European Accreditation Council
for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) an institution of
the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), www.uems.be
for a maximum of 23 hours of European external CME credits.
"EACCME" credits are recognized by the American
Medical Association towards the Physician's Recognition Award
(PRA). To convert EACCME credit to AMA PRA category 1 credit,
contact the AMA.
The Italian CME credits for physicians and nurses; as well
as the Royal College of Physicians had been requested but
have not yet been communicated at the preparation of this
report.
The forum was attended by a total of 720 participants,
including also 47 exhibitors from 5 publishers and 11 pharmaceutical
companies.
Participation
The participants came from the following countries.
| West
Europe |
N° |
|
East
Europe |
N° |
|
Rest
of the World |
N° |
| Austria |
16 |
Hungary |
1 |
Argentina |
1 |
| Belgium |
77 |
Lithuania |
1 |
Australia |
8 |
| Denmark |
9 |
Poland |
8 |
Canada |
12 |
| Finland |
7 |
Czech
Republic |
1 |
Israel |
12 |
| France |
13 |
Romania |
2 |
Japan |
1 |
| Germany |
74 |
Russia |
3 |
Lebanon |
1 |
| Great
Britain |
121 |
Sloviakia |
1 |
Nigeria |
1 |
| Greece |
2 |
Slovenia |
1 |
Singapore |
1 |
| Iceland |
1 |
Yugoslavia |
1 |
Saudi
Arabia |
1 |
| Ireland |
12 |
TOTAL |
19 |
Tunisia |
1 |
| Italy |
115 |
|
|
USA |
25 |
| Malta |
2 |
|
|
TOTAL |
64 |
| Netherlands |
48 |
|
|
|
|
| Norway |
31 |
|
|
|
|
| Portugal |
18 |
|
|
|
|
| Spain |
49 |
|
|
|
|
| Sweden |
22 |
|
|
|
|
| Switzerland |
20 |
|
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
637 |
|
|
|
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Of the 449 persons who had indicated their
profession 342 were physicians (= 76%) and 51 where nurses
(=11 %).
Follow
up and thanks
The
“Highlights” of each day of the Forum are available
as a pdf file on the EAPC website at:
http://www.eapcnet.org/Research2004/forum/default.asp
The Research Steering Committee is planning to create
together with Effetti, an on line course based on the registrations
of the scientific contents of the main Auditorium, in order
to give members who did not attend the Forum the possibility
to view at least a part of the sessions. This project is subject
to funding and will hopefully be online for the late spring
2005 and we are looking into the possibility of CME accreditation.
We would like to thank, the members of the Research and Scientific
Committee, the Advisory Board, the Abstract Reviewers, abstract
handling office in Trondheim, all the invited speakers and
authors of the Abstracts included in the programme, the sponsors
and our congress Organiser Effetti for the pleasant and successful
collaboration and forward to welcome everybody again at the
4th Forum of the Research
to be held in May 2006, in Venice, Italy.
Franco De Conno & Heidi Blumhuber
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