Attend the largest rare disease multi-stakeholder event of 2018!

The 9th European Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Products (ECRD) will take place on 10 – 12 May in Vienna, Austria.

Register to attend by tomorrow for early bird rates!

Organised by EURORDIS and co-organised by Orphanet and the DIA, the ECRD is the largest multi-stakeholder gathering in Europe for the rare disease community.

The overarching theme for ECRD 2018 Vienna - Rare Diseases 360° – collaborative strategies to leave no one behind - reinforces the unique quality of this event to bring together and facilitate effective policy discussions between all rare disease stakeholders.

ECRD 2018 Vienna covers topics including research and diagnosis, medicines, the digital patient, health and social care, and global rare disease initiatives across these six themes.

Why attend?

Network with all stakeholders shaping the rare disease environment: patients, policy makers, researchers, industry, regulators, EU Member State representatives, academia, clinicians, health technology assessment evaluators and payers.
Discover important breakthroughs in diagnosis, research and novel technologies such as gene therapies.
Find out how European Reference Networks are shaping the future of healthcare.
Hear about innovative solutions and programmes that address quality of life issues for patients.
Explore the implications of emerging pricing, reimbursement and access trends for orphan medicines together with those responsible for the markets.

See more reasons to attend ECRD 2018 Vienna for patient advocates, healthcare industry representatives and researchers and clinicians.

ECRD 2018 Vienna: Looking to the future

The rare disease community, including all rare disease patient organisations and their partners, can be deservedly proud of its achievements over the last 20 years.

But as we look forward to the next decades there is still much to achieve. Advancements in science and medicine - such as transformative treatments, game-changing digital technologies, and innovation in the organisation of health and social care – as well as increased empowerment of patients, will provide many opportunities.

We need to accelerate the momentum we have built over the last 20 years to ensure no single person living with a rare disease is left behind.

ECRD 2018 Vienna is an opportunity to discuss and reach solutions on how we can look to the future to improve the lives of the estimated 30 million people living with a rare disease in Europe and 300 million worldwide.

Focusing on six themes, participants at ECRD 2018 Vienna will discuss and set out next steps for strategies to:

Create a 360° approach to improving the lives of rare disease patients and families.
Meet the unmet needs of patients through collaborative cross-border strategies, including the European Reference Networks.
Develop a system that guarantees sustainability of patients’ access to medicines and care.
Increase rare disease research and collaboration across the rare disease research community.
Aim to provide all people living with a rare disease with an accurate diagnosis, care, and available therapy within one year of coming to medical attention (in line with the goals of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium, IRDiRC).