IAPO Logo High Resolution
HI! from the IAPO (International Alliance of Patients Organisations) Global Patients Conference 2016!

I’m representing Lupus Europe at this amazing conference!   From www.iapo.org.uk  “150 patients’ advocates from 48 countries are meeting in London to discuss how innovation can help achieve universal, patient-centred and sustainable access to healthcare around the world.”

My objective here was to represent Lupus Europe (we are a voting member), and give visibility to lupus.

–> I have been tweeting as lupuseurope (just during this conference, usually it’s Nuria!) using the hashtag #GPC2016 and #lupus, so you can look through the tweets and see some photos and other quotes from the days.

It’s been very rich agenda so far.   Monday we started with what they called a “Speed-up dating” which was a fun meet and greet. We had two minutes to one person and we had to learn about each other. I met 15 people/groups in 30 mins! I think it’s a great idea to break the ice! 

Then we had the AGM where we heard old business, financials and elected five (!) new board members.

We heard from Jolanta Bilinska (Governing Board Chair) about IAPOs objectives, and Kahwaldip Sehmi, IAPO CEO, about his road to IAPO (he had such good care with his illness that he wanted to make sure everyone could have the same!)
They listed IAPO’s goals as:
Help patients’ organizations to be as effective as possible
Be the leading patients voice on health issues
Empower the global patient movement

They talked about how the UK Charity laws have changed, there are new ways of presenting budgets, and so that took time to adapt.

Keynote speaker: Nicolas Sireau gave a very inspiring speech, about Fundamental Diseases (he has two children with Black Bone disease, an ultra rare disease) It’s on Ted Talk so you can see what he has to say about why it’s so important to study rare diseases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UnVlU5hAY

We had a talk from Professor Peter Boyle on the challenge of rising global cancer rates, particularity in lower and middle-class income countries.  He said we had to consider the patients, giving many memorable quotes, such as “statistics are patients with the tears wiped away.”

Then we had Workshops.  I was part of the workshop, “Building effective and innovative networks and campaigns for greater impact.” and presented the Patient Panel work on Adherence to Treatment done by Alain, Bernadette, Davide and Jeanette (among others) in 2014.  The presentation was really well received and so many people were impressed by the work done (well done team!!)

Penny Cowan, American Chronic Pain organisation, gave a really impressive talk about new tools they have invented and are trying to get passed to talk to doctors about pain.  I am sure we could do an excellent adaptation of one for lupus!  They are all available for download from https://theacpa.org/Communication-Tools

There was also an interesting talk from Mattias Wienold, European Aids Treatment Group, and summaries of the other workshops.  All talked about how we need to focus on the patients and the patients need to have endless persistence to get the results they want!

The presentation brought several people to come to talk to me about our lupus work.

End of Day one on Saturday evening – I’ll write about today’s meeting and some of the interesting people I met later or tomorrow.
Thinking of your all!
Anne

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2 days ago

🏆 We’re thrilled to announce that #LupusGPT has won the PFMD #MadeWithPatients Award 2025 as Best Emerging Innovation!

🌍A huge moment for Lupus Europe & the European #lupus community — proving what’s possible through true patient innovation and collaboration.

😃Celebrating at #EULAR2025!

#PEOF2025
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7 days ago

🏆 This Wednesday, we will find out if LupusGPT will win the PFMD Made with Patients Award 2025!

🎉 Join us in this exciting moment for the lupus community by watching the ceremony live online (registration is available at the link provided in our blog post).

👉 If you still don’t know what this huge achievement means, read our latest blog post, where you will also find the link to register for the live ceremony at the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF).

💜 Created by patients, for patients, #LupusGPT and #EASYLupus are already breaking barriers in access to reliable, multilingual lupus information. Check the tool out and explore how easy it is to access valid and clear lupus information in your language.

Remember! All the information and links are available in our latest blog post!

www.lupus-europe.org/lupusgpt-made-with-patients-awards-2025/
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2 weeks ago

🟣 LUPUS-ALERT is moving forward!

Thanks to the amazing collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients, we’ve now identified many potential vulnerabilities that can impact access to appropriate lupus care.

We want to extend a special thank you to all the lupus patients who responded to our call and shared the barriers patients may face: financial, social, linguistic, geographic…

🌟 Your contribution is helping to develop a tool that will systematically identify the vulnerabilities patients face. This is a wonderful step towards lupus care that is more holistic, equitable, personalised, and responsive to patients' real-life needs.

🔝 A huge thank you to Prof. Laurent Arnaud, Dr. Daniel Guimarães de Oliveira - Imunologia Clínica, Jeanette Andersen, and Zoe Karakikla-Mitsakou for their invaluable contributions and commitment to LUPUS-ALERT!

🌍 And a special thank you to the many physicians and patients who have come together to work on this project for the benefit of lupus patients.

🚀 #LupusAlert now moves into Step 2!!!

🔔 Stay tuned!
... See MoreSee Less

🟣 LUPUS-ALERT is moving forward!

Thanks to the amazing collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients, we’ve now identified many potential vulnerabilities that can impact access to appropriate lupus care. 

We want to extend a special thank you to all the lupus patients who responded to our call and shared the barriers patients may face: financial, social, linguistic, geographic… 

🌟 Your contribution is helping to develop a tool that will systematically identify the vulnerabilities patients face. This is a wonderful step towards lupus care that is more holistic, equitable, personalised, and responsive to patients real-life needs.

🔝 A huge thank you to Prof. Laurent Arnaud, Dr. Daniel Guimarães de Oliveira - Imunologia Clínica, Jeanette Andersen, and Zoe Karakikla-Mitsakou for their invaluable contributions and commitment to LUPUS-ALERT!

🌍 And a special thank you to the many physicians and patients who have come together to work on this project for the benefit of lupus patients.

🚀 #LupusAlert now moves into Step 2!!!

🔔 Stay tuned!
2 weeks ago

#EULAR2025 is around the corner!

🦋 Lupus Europe plays a significant role in this year's Congress, with a diverse range of exciting topics and great participation.

✅ We will be sharing insights from most of the lupus sessions on X, so don't forget to follow us!

😃 Stay tuned!
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LUPUS EUROPE Uniting people with Lupus throughout Europe
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