Editorial Letter

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Dear EPMA-members Dear Readers of the EPMA-Journal Dear Friends around the world 2010—The 1st year of the EPMA-Journal is almost over now. During this year, the EPMA-Journal has been very supportive in announcing the global message of the European Association for Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine, namely ➢ Clinical observations clearly demonstrate that the same therapeutic approaches applied within the same patient cohort lead to good individual outcomes. ➢ “First Do No Harm” is the highest imperative of personalised medicine that is credible and feasible only in the case of the application of individualised treatment algorithms. ➢ The paradigm change from late interventional approaches to predictive diagnostics followed by a targeted prevention before the pathology manifests itself—is the cost effective concept of advanced healthcare. ➢ Predictive perinatal / postnatal diagnostics aimed at the preselection of healthy but disease-predisposed individuals should be followed by effective, individually-created preventive measures—the task for which the highest priority should be given. This measure will lead to a dramatically reduced prevalence of severe chronic pathologies and better long-term outcomes in the coming generations when treated according to individual parameters and optimally-suited therapeutic modalities. ➢ Subsequently, an increased portion of socially active members remaining vibrant, and in excellent physical and mental health, can be expected in the elderly population. This will have the highly desirable effect in helping to solve the accumulating socioeconomical problems of ageing societies around the globe. ➢ The global challenge of the 21st century is to make good use of innovative approaches for advanced healthcare that will allow a dramatic increase in the portion of actively contributing members to society. This task requires intelligent political regulations and the creation of new guidelines to advance the healthcare systems that are currently rather resistant to progress in the life sciences. ➢ Global research and implementation programmes in biomedicine, as well as communication between scientific branches, healthcare-providers, policy-makers, educators and organised patient groups plus a consolidation of professional groups will all play a decisive role in driving the overall situation in personalised medicine. It is evident that in order to reach a maximally positive scenario for the further development in personalised medicine, all the above listed stakeholders should be well consolidated and their interaction well harmonised. How can this objective be realised? Towards this objective, the “European Association for Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine” is organising the EPMA-World Congress 2011 in Bonn, Germany (September 15–18th) with its specialised Workshops on: ➢ Healthcare in overview across the globe ➢ Collaboration with global organisations (UNO, WHO, etc.) ➢Granting strategies in PPPM (EU-Commission, NIH, NCI, National Ministries) ➢ PPPM-related Education ➢ Primary Prevention, Body Culture, Sport Medicine ➢ PPPM in Reproductive Medicine ➢ PPPM early in life (Neonatology, Paediatrics) ➢ PPPM in Diabetes care ➢ PPPM in Neurodegeneration ➢ PPPM in Cancer ➢ PPPM in Cardiovascular Pathologies ➢ PPPM-Centres, Validation and Standards ➢ Patients’ needs: “Round-table” with GPs and Organised Patients’ Groups ➢ Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI) ➢ Computer-assisted patient modelling in PPPM; creation of individualised treatment modalities ➢ Role of Laboratory Medicine in PPPM ➢ PPPM-related Bio-Banking ➢ Drug-diagnostics co-development and commercialisation strategies in the PPPM era ➢ Private-public partnerships The EPMA-World Congress will be inaugurated in 2011 and will take place every two years following the 24-months thematic cycle of the EPMA-Journal. There will be some congress specialities, namely: A strong focus on PPPM-related implementation in medical practice: a specialised Workshop will be dedicated to Clustered PPPM-Centres” with elaborated standards to be followed by the member-centres that allow a distribution of harmonised medical services at the highest level in Europe and around the globe; The integration of the PPPM-related industry: without exception, each thematic workshop will benefit from the issue-related input by industry and the regulators, including innovative R & D concepts, advanced technologies, PPPM-centred products, etc. The EPMA-World Congress is an important global event promoting the consolidation and overall PPPM-concept as summarised above. This idea is expressed in the letter of support from the Organisation of United Nations and personally—by Mr. Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, The Vice-Secretary-General of UNO: To All of you—A very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011—the Year, when we meet together for our important mission promoting much progress in the field of Predictive, Preventive & Personalised Medicine.