jueves, 15 de julio de 2010

ESMO's new strategic plan: our society's road to the future of oncology — Ann Oncol


ESMO's new strategic plan: our society's road to the future of oncology

After 30 years of continued growth and progress, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) through its Executive Committee recently agreed on the need to launch a major strategic plan that would carefully analyze the current status of oncology and the needs of our members and that would assist us in selecting our priorities on multiple fronts in years to come. This strategic plan has now been completed and approved by our Society's General Assembly and is in the process of being implemented by our office as well by an army of members and volunteers.

The first sobering realization at age 30 of our society is that despite apparent advances in several fronts from basic research to improved therapies, cancer continues to be a major cause of suffering and death in our population. In Europe alone, there are an estimated 3.2 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths each year, and the aging of our population will cause these numbers to get considerably worse before they get better [1]. This calls for a comprehensive approach by all stakeholders against cancer including cancer societies. The mission of ESMO, as detailed in our Bylaws, is and will remain mostly unchanged. As a society we are committed, among other objectives, to improve the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, supportive, and palliative care of patients with malignant disorders; to advance the art, science, recognition, and practice of oncology; to promote education in oncology in order to ensure a high standard of qualification of medical oncologists within the multidisciplinary team; and to promote equal access to optimal cancer care of all cancer patients. This is a high call and we are fully committed to our missions and goals.

In order to fulfill our mission, ESMO's strategic plan 2009–2012 calls for specific strategic choices in several areas that are considered fundamental pillars of our society: Community, Education, Practice career and support, Research, Public policy, and Organization and Governance.

At the Community level, we feel strongly the need to expand and potentiate our membership base. Before the last annual meeting that was held in Stockholm, our society had a total of 4300 active members. We have now launched a major membership plan during our congress and we are also planning to work in close partnership with national societies within Europe and elsewhere. We would like to reach the figure of 10 000 active members by the end of 2012 and we are well on our way. In the last 3 months of 2008, the number of active members has already increased to close to 6000, an unprecedented growth of membership in the history of ESMO. In addition, we are also implementing a strong retention plan, as we would like our members to remain in our family throughout their professional careers. In this line, we are committed to assist our members by promoting the sharing of knowledge and the building of competence, skills, and expertise to practice oncology. ESMO plans to facilitate the contact and collaboration between members, making it easier for them to connect with colleagues or to create on-line communities with those who share their same research or professional interests. This sense of community reaches beyond medical oncology and across oncology specialties because in our daily practice we participate in multidisciplinary oncology teams. We are all an extended family of professionals and we would like to become a home for this vibrant and growing community.

One of ESMO's traditional strengths over the years has been its powerful education programs. Under the new strategic plan Education at ESMO will get even stronger. We are increasing the size of the annual meeting and we are sharing our meeting with ECCO on a bi-annual basis [2]. We will also strengthen our existing portfolio of meetings and have launched new events and programs in four core specialties in collaboration with other leading European oncology organizations: breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, genitourinary cancer and lung cancer. In addition, we plan to nurture symposia on various high-interest topics outside of our four core specialties. Complementary to attending physical meetings, we have established an E-Learning and Continual Medical Education Working Group to generate content for an E-learning platform within the ESMO Web site. We will also expand our guidelines and promote their implementation by the oncology community. And, importantly, we will reinforce ESMO's scientific journal, Annals of Oncology, by steadily increasing the outreach of its impact worldwide.

At the Practice career and support level, we are launching the largest expansion of the Fellowship Programs in the history of ESMO. We have now created clinical (1 year) and translational (2 years) research fellowships in addition to other training opportunities. The number of high-level applications being reviewed by the ESMO Fellowship and Awards Committee has increased greatly in the last year and we are determined to seek the funds to support as many good applications as possible. In addition, our web-based platform will enable us to provide practice career information, a job-posting Web site as well as to provide practical information on daily practice ranging from reimbursement issues to off-label drug alerts.

On the Research front, we would like to act as facilitators with focus on clinical/translational research and on target areas of excellence. We will explore the possibility of working in conjunction with cooperative groups to organize joint activities such as meetings and provide support on policy and publications. In this regard, we are launching a breast cancer meeting this year in partnership with the Breast International Group. We are also planning to centralize research funding information on ESMO's Web site.
Over the years, ESMO has taken a stand on Public policy affecting the practice of medical oncology through our position papers or recommendations on topics such as cancer prevention, quality cancer care, supportive and palliative care, cross-border health care, use of off-label drugs [3], and rare tumors. Established in 2006, the ESMO Political Office in Brussels proactively addresses health care issues affecting oncology by offering political decision makers evidence-based expertise. In this area resides one of our major challenges. While medical oncology is recognized in many European Union (EU) Members States, our specialty is not yet recognized at the European level. We are determined to achieve the inclusion of medical oncology as an independent medical specialty in the ‘Annex’ of the EU Directive 2005/36/EC on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications. This would guarantee the recognition in Europe of medical oncology as an official professional qualification. It would also allow for the harmonization of medical oncology training requirements, as well as the free movement of medical oncologists across borders in countries where medical oncology is recognized. All these conditions are essential to ensure high-quality patient treatment to the millions of Europeans who have cancer or who develop cancer each year.

Our new strategy requires the fine-tuning of our Organizational Structure and Governance procedures. We have established two new committees, a Nominating Committee and an Ethics Committee, as well as a new ESMO department of Business Development. Our objective with the Nominating Committee is to increase the engagement of our members in the democratic election process of ESMO officers. The ESMO members elected to serve on the Nominating Committee will evaluate and propose candidates for election to future positions of leadership within ESMO.
Retaining our high level of ethical standards amidst increasingly complicated disclosure of interest and regulation policies necessitates the formation of an Ethics Committee to guide ESMO in its strategic development by ensuring compliance of all activities with our ethical standards. On the horizon lie many ideas for innovative or improved ESMO products and services. These will be evaluated and prioritized by the Business Development Department.

All these ambitious plans could not be implemented without our highly dedicated and competent ESMO permanent staff. We are blessed by their commitment, sharing of vision and hard work and we will provide all the additional support they need as our activities expand. ESMO will also need an army of volunteers who will move forward these ambitious goals. You are all invited to join our extended family. For those of you who hear the call of service, welcome aboard.
J. Baselga, H. Mellsted and D. Kerr

+ Author Affiliations
on behalf of ESMO

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

References
1.↵Ferlay J, Autier P, Boniol M, et al. Estimates of the cancer incidence and mortality in Europe in 2006. Ann Oncol 2007;18:581-592.Abstract/FREE Full Text2.↵Baselga J. Creating a stronger front against cancer: ESMO and ECCO join forces. Ann Oncol 2008;19:1367-1368.FREE Full Text3.↵Casali PG. The off-label use of drugs in oncology: a position paper by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Ann Oncol 2007;18:1923-1925.FREE Full Text

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ESMO's new strategic plan: our society's road to the future of oncology — Ann Oncol

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