AGM 2024

Leadership Event and AGM  2024 

On 13 and 14 April,  the European Patients' Forum hosted a capacity-building workshop tailored for members, on the opportunities, perspectives, and challenges of AI use in healthcare, followed the day after by the Annual General Meeting (AGM).

AI Literacy for Patient Advocacy: Capacity Building Workshop

On Saturday, we kicked off the AI workshop with a presentation on the basics of AI, delivered by IIdikó Vajda from the Dutch Patient Federation, followed by an interview with Claudia Louati, EPF Head of Policy, and Antonio Andreu, EATRIS Scientific Director.

During the conversation, Antonio Andreu provided insight on how to effectively involve citizens and patients to make sure the great amount of knowledge generated by science doesn’t exceed our capacity to process it and it is ethically utilised. 

After lunch, Stefan Philips, Dr. Oliver Emmler, and Rik Wisselink-Bijker from OneVision Healthcare moderated a role-playing game on the application of AI in the health journey of a patient.

Later in the afternoon, Milana Trucl (Policy Officer at EPF) presented our policy paper on AI. The day was closed by a policy panel, moderated by Anca Toma (Executive Director EPF) who challenged Claudia Marinetti (Mental Health Europe), Peter Arlett (EMA), Eric Sutherland (OECD), and Antonio Grasso (DigitalSME) to consider the best practices towards responsible use of AI in healthcare. 

Annual General Meeting

On Sunday, our members gathered to approve the minutes of the previous year's AGM, the 2023 Annual Report, the 2023 financials, and the work plan for 2024 and subsequent budget. 

Our members approved the 2023 report and budget, as well as the work plan for 2024. In the case of the budget for 2024, the members agreed with the Board's recommendation to convene an extraordinary AGM, to approve the 2024 financials, taking into account the ongoing approval process for the operating grant from the European Commission. 

New Members of the Board

As the agenda included the elections of four Board members, we take the chance to welcome the re-elected Board members: 

 

At the same time, we turn to Brian West (EATG - European AIDS Treatment Group) who has retired from the EPF Board. Thank you for your years of service and heartfelt contribution to EPF's journey so far!  

New members and the #Vote4Patients EU Elections campaign

We are happy to welcome two associations to the EPF family!

Sjögren Europe and the Association of Patient Organizations of Slovenia (ZOPS) have been voted in as full EPF members. 

Finally, the day was concluded with a discussion on EPF's #Vote4Patients 2024 EU Elections Campaign. Our colleague, Claudia Louati, presented the progress of the campaign and the achievements we have reached so far.