On 4th and 5th December 2024, the AIB hosted its annual country meeting in Helsinki (Finland), bringing together local experts to discuss key aspects of adult vaccination. In 2023, the country meeting was realized in Florence (Italy), and on both occasions the Director of Active Citizenship Network, as AIB Board Member, joined the appointments.
Adult Immunization Board (AIB) Country meetings are a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices for improving adult immunization strategies. Experts from academia, healthcare, public health, and policy shared their innovative approaches to tackling challenges in adult vaccination.
In 2024, the Director of Active Citizenship Network was engaged in a COVID-19 Global Stakeholder Policy Roundtable with stakeholders representing advocacy organizations across Europe, Canada and Japan. The collaborative initiative marked the release of a new policy paper aimed at identifying best practices for a sustainable public health management of COVID 19 in a post-pandemic phase and supporting patients at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, including those with chronic conditions and compromised immune systems, as we navigate this new phase. In particular, on the occasion of the roundtable carried out on 2 December 2024, experts involved discussed key policy recommendations aimed at enhancing public health strategies. These include the establishment of national vaccination schedules aligned to risk groups to ensure timely and equitable access, especially for vulnerable communities. Additionally, the discussions emphasized the importance of improving communication between public health authorities, healthcare providers, and patients to raise awareness of and support the continued need for COVID-19 prevention, mitigation and treatment.
Active Citizenship Network was at the 9th Life Course Immunisation Summit on equitable access to vaccination across the life course, held during the 16th Excellence in Paediatrics Conference in Barcelona, Spain, on 28-30 November 2024. The ACN’ Director spoke about the “Grassroots mobilisation leveraging civil society and community leadership to bridge gaps in vaccine coverage”, and highlighted the work of the intermediate body of the society to improve vaccination uptake and to promote the life course immunization culture.
ACN published a new policy paper entitled ‘Strengthening the European ecosystem for equitable patient access to Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products’, based on a multi-stakeholder roundtable discussion held on 4 July 2024. The backbone of the discussion was the study conducted by the #VITA consortium, which includes a concrete proposal to make spending on advanced therapies no longer a current expense but an investment. The ACN paper garnered interesting insights from independent experts from Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, also reflecting on which direction we should move and how the newly elected European institutions should act to make the right to care enforceable in the context of ATMP.
Published in September 2024 by the new born European Network on Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Resistance (ENIPAR) - in which Active Citizenship Network is officially involved – to mark the second UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).
As AMR stands out as one of the top 3 health threats in the EU, a new Call to Action with baseline recommendations urges decision makers to take timely action to ensure the 2030 targets are met. Read more
Fruitful days for the EU funded BioReCer project in Milan (Italy), from 1 to 3 of October, 2024. In particular, the 3rd coordination meeting of the project took place, hosted by UNI Ente Italiano di Normazione where the different partners shared their progress and visited the wastewater treatment plant of Gruppo CAP located in Robecco sul Naviglio.
Citizens, doctors, first responders (Firefighters, Police, Carabinieri, Red Cross, Civil Protection, etc.) united to test innovative tools of the NIGHTINGALE project for responding to mass casualty emergencies. It was a powerful demonstration of collaboration! Special thanks to the volunteers from Cittadinanzattiva APS-Active Citizenship Network for participating and trying out new applications to interact with 112 emergency number and to engage and empower the bystanders on the scene.
Civil organizations and patients’ advocacy groups, together with healthcare professional associations call on European policy-makers to address the health workforce crisis by implementing solutions that prioritize the well-being of health workers, probably the main precondition for better protection of patients' rights across Europe. Read two articles written as a follow up of the celebration of the XVIII European Patients’ Rights Day by the ACN’s Director published on two peer-reviewed international journals Clinics in Nursing and International Journal of Medical Case Reports and Medical Research.
co-OPERATOR is an innovative Horizon EU4Health funded project that aims to develop a Country-Observatory to share best practices for vaccination promotion.
Indeed, European stakeholders face significant variability in addressing vaccination hesitancy and implementing COVID-19 vaccination campaigns among healthcare providers and the general population. Challenges include widespread hesitancy within the population and variations in the communication skills of healthcare providers. To address these issues, cross-country initiatives play a crucial role in knowledge-sharing, especially considering the observed differences in vaccine coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ACN is happy to share the success of the organization of the FACILITATE project webinar on returning data to clinical trial participants! Missed it? Don't worry! You can now watch the recording and download the slides presented HERE.
The event garnered an impressive turnout, with participants from various sectors including patients and associations, pharma, academic research organizations, nurses, investigators, regulators, EU institutions, ethical bodies, data protection bodies, clinicians, etc..