Tag Archive for: Steering Committee meeting

eCAN’s Steering Committee unveils the first achievements of the Joint Action

Some participants of the second eCAN Steering Committee Meeting

The Steering Committee meeting of eCAN has been held today, May 11th, in a virtual format and with more than forty participants from beneficiary and affiliated entities. The meeting has served for the different Work Packages to present the progress achieved on the first quarter of 2023 and share their upcoming assignments. 

The reunion has been welcomed by Matthias Schuppe, responsible for preparing DG SANTE’s work on the ‘Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’, Maren Hunds, member from the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), Dheepa Rajan from the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and Caroline Berchet, health economist at the OECD Health Division. The four professionals have spoken at the beginning of the meeting, stressing the importance of the JA and the possibility of establishing synergies in the near future with other entities and European initiatives. 

While all the Work Packages were able to share their progress, the bulk of this Steering Committee focused on the two pilots that eCAN is developing in teleconsultation and telemonitoring, which should be launched on June. 

eCAN’s first achievements 

Following the agenda, OECD and WHO/OBS, as eCAN observers, highlighted their supporting role to the overall project’s progress. The JA has been selected as example of project linked to quality of life in an exhibition of European projects organised by DG SANTE within the framework of the European Week Against Cancer (EWAC). 

WP8’s presentation has been focused on stakeholders’ identification and engagement. The colleagues from Greece have organised and taught four workshops for eCAN participants between April and May. As for the upcoming tasks, WP8 will soon conduct a gap analysis and assess the training needs of patients, caregivers, and clinical experts. They will also develop an educational framework and training materials. 

Andrea Pace, from the IRCCS Regina Elena Cancer Institute (IFO-IRE) has conducted both presentations of Teleconsultation (WP5) and Legal, ethical framework and cybersecurity (WP6), focused on the initial development of the JA’s pilots. 

Halfway through the Steering Committee, the Telemonitoring team (WP7) has also given some insight into its work until now. This includes partially completing the landscape of remote surveillance of patients and the ongoing development of the telemonitoring system to start pilots testing. In fact, they show several mock-ups of the application that will be used to monitor patients participating in the study. 

Progress on sustainability, evaluation and communication 

The past and following months have also been addressed by the entities belonging to Austria, Poland and Spain, and they have discussed the risks, gaps and opportunities that they expect to experience in the upcoming weeks.  

The Sustainability Work Package (WP4) has finalised all preparations on the Country Factsheets, documents that compile information on different territories’ preparedness, legislation and initiatives on cancer and digital health. They have been verifying the available data over the past months and country factsheets will soon be sent for external validation. 

The team responsible for the Evaluation (WP3) is about to finalize the second progress report and is preparing the cost and consequence analysis framework together with the protocol for the SWOT analysis. Both milestones are scheduled for July 2023. 

Finally, the Communication team (WP2) has presented their campaign for the European Week Against Cancer (EWAC) and showed the recent content published on the website (interviews, news, newsletters…) and social media, with TikTok emerging as one of the most prominent social networks for eCAN. The Spanish team has already submitted two deliverables, the most recent one being the updated version of the Communication and Dissemination Plan. The main ahead tasks for the communication team include preparing the first Annual Report and start organising the project’s final conference. 

Towards the first half of the Joint Action

The Joint Action “Strengthening eHealth including telemedicine and remote monitoring for health care systems for cancer prevention and care”, launched in September 2022, is approaching its first year. 

The summer months will be crucial for its progress and evolution, as many important milestones will be reached, with the start of the pilots being the most important one. At the same time, the first anniversary of eCAN will also serve to take stock of what has been achieved so far and to preview the outcomes that this European initiative could provide. Such progress will be monitored and explained in more detail at the next Steering Committees. 

The Steering Committee meeting offers a glimpse to eCAN’s future

The First Steering Committee meeting offers a glimpse to eCAN's future

The Steering Committee meeting of the eCAN has been held today, January 30th, in a virtual format and with more than fifty participants belonging to beneficiary and affiliated entities. The meeting has served for the different work packages to present the progress achieved during the first five months of the Joint Action and share their planning until July 2023.  

In addition, the reunion has also given rise to some important announcements, such as the interest of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to establish possible synergies with eCAN. These would include knowledge exchange and dissemination related to cancer inequalities or stakeholders’ involvement, as well as the possibility of getting support to improve the sustainability of the European project. 

Apart from the OECD, members from the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) have also intervened at the beginning, expressing their support to achieve the objectives of the JA. 

The first stages of the JA 

Following the order of the agenda, the vertical work packages Teleconsultation (WP5), Legal, ethical framework and cybersecurity (WP6), Telemonitoring (WP7) and Stakeholder engagement (WP8) have been the first ones to present, with a quick review of the work carried out in the first months and the challenges faced related to the project pilots and the identification of interested parties. 

The following months have also been addressed by the entities belonging to Italy, Cyprus and Greece, where they have discussed the risks, gaps and opportunities that they expect to experience until the summer of 2023. Ultimately, each work package has pointed out the inputs needed from the rest of the eCAN participants during this period. 

In the second part of the meeting, the transversal work packages Coordination (WP1), Communication (WP2), Evaluation (WP3) and Sustainability (WP4) have followed the same scheme, also delving into the status of their deliverables and the tasks to be developed until July. In addition, the Communication team has shown awaited features of the website, like the newsletter or the social networks accounts, as well as specific audio-visual materials designed to accompany important dates such as World Cancer Day, the 4th of February. 

After the respective presentations of all the WP leaders and the final exchange of questions and answers between the different attendees, emphasis has been placed on the opportunities for collaboration between the JA areas and the need to strengthen the flow of multilateral communication between all the entities implied.  

Milestones for the next months 

The Joint Action “Strengthening eHealth including telemedicine and remote monitoring for health care systems for cancer prevention and care”, started in September 2022, has still a long way to go until its end at the final months of 2024. 

However, this next five months will be crucial for its progress and evolution since many important milestones should be achieved: the Stakeholder analysis, the updated version of the Dissemination and Communication plan, the Progress Report, the pilot projects protocol and the start of the patients’ enrolment, etc. 

Such progress will be presented in more detail at following Steering Committees.