#EAPM: Avrupa Parlamentosu'nun merkezinde göz hastalıklarına odaklanan AB Beyaz Kitabı

On the upcoming occasion of World Sight Day, the European Parliament will see the launch of a Beyaz Kağıt  adlı ‘Eyes Right: Preventable Blindness’, aimed at raising awareness of the importance of an EU focus on eye diseases, yazıyor Kişiselleştirilmiş Tıp Avrupa Birliği (EAPM) İcra Direktörü Denis Horgan.

The launch will be augmented by a workshop one-day ahead of this year’s World Sight Day. The latter will be held on 12 October, under the banner ‘Make Vision Count’.

The high-level workshop  on 11 October, meanwhile, will highlight that eye disease and its prevention is a major issue in Europe today and will only become bigger as the 500-million-plus population ages (and the incidence of, for example, diabetes grows).

There are some 39 million blind people in the world, but 80% of blindness can be cured or prevented. That’s 31.2 million people who are blind when they needn’t be, and studies suggest that eye disease costs society in Europe some €20 billion, causing a significant economic burden.

One recent study estimated that (including the 39m classified as blind) 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. The number of blind people in the EU population (aged more than 50) is around 1.3 million, with in the region of a further 10 million living with medium-to-severe visual impairment.

Avrupa'daki görme bozukluğunun ekonomik sonuçları, tedavi ve teşhise bağlı doğrudan tıbbi maliyetleri, gelecekteki olası sağlık sonuçlarının (düşme veya diğer kazaların artması riskini içerir) tedavisi ve doğrudan tıbbi olmayan maliyetleri içerir.

Loss of productivity due to an inability to work is also a huge factor, and this often includes the patient’s carer.

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These substantial costs are more than likely to increase in the future and much better use of already-available cost-effective prevention and treatment tools would reduce the fiscal burden.

MEP Cristian Silviu Bușoi will host the workshop in the Parliament and will be joined by fellow MEPs Alojz Peterle,  Marian Harkin, and Soledad Cabezon Ruiz.

Ian Banks, the chair of the European Forum Against Blindness (EFAB), alongside European Alliance for Personalised Medicine Executive Director Denis Horgan, will give an overview of the White Paper, before a stakeholder discussion.

Among topics covered on the day will be the aforementioned diabetes and eye problems, easing access to prevention and innovative treatments, and including patients in preventable blindness policy formation. Also on the table will be the need to promote research into blindness.

Sunumların ardından Beyaz Kitaptaki fikirlerin gerçek olmasını sağlamak için gerekli adımları içeren bir soru-cevap oturumu izlenecektir.

To support a common effort on behalf of all stakeholders in this area, the White Paper, agreed by consensus, will explain the need for, among other things, a more preventative approach to blindness across the EU’s Member States - the authors believe that the battle against eye disease in Europe needs to be fought at EU level.

Investment in screening programmes, earlier (and better) diagnoses and adequate treatment of retinal conditions, can lower the economic burden and bring about improved quality of life, and therefore a more productive population.

Comprehensive screening will certainly allow a more preventative approach, while swift and efficacious treatment means patients are much less likely to require expensive hospital beds and are more able to continue working and contributing to Europe’s economy.

Stakeholders strongly believe that the EU as a whole should be doing more to facilitate research and raise awareness of eye diseases, which have a low profile compared to other diseases that ruin the quality of life, on a daily and long-term basis, of sufferers and have a huge impact societally and financially, as outlined above.

Currently, there is far too little awareness to push Europe into tackling this at policy level. Therefore, the goals of the White Paper include better informing patients and healthcare professionals on preventable blindness, promoting policies of screening, early diagnosis and adequate care and treatment across all member states, and pursuing patients’ rights to adequate treatment, safety and informed choice.

In a nutshell, research into the causes of cataracts and other eye diseases needs boosting across the EU, with platforms put in place for effective collaboration between academia, industry and health-care systems.

Also, health-care professionals need to quickly identify high quality, trustworthy clinical practice guidelines and methods, in order to improve decision making for the benefit of their patients.

Meanwhile, patients need to be better informed and screening programmes need to be in place for their short- and long-term benefit.

Stakeholders are under no illusions that health care is one of the biggest challenges facing Europe today, and can only be improved and sustained with the agreement, co-operation and co-ordination of all stakeholders.

Key to this is how health care is governed in the EU and what influence, in effect, Brussels can and does have, bearing in mind that much of the areas of health come under member state competence. New screening programmes and information to prevent avoidable blindness would be one way giant leap forward.

EFAB’s Ian Banks said ahead of the event: “Without screening and early detection of preventable eye diseases, leading in the worst-case scenario to blindness, much of the incredible medical science being developed will struggle to fulfil all of its potential, in this case when it comes to improving the quality of lives of visually impaired citizens, now and for generations to come.”