Photo by Daniel Sone
The European Hematology Association (EHA) has created a “roadmap” for hematology research in Europe.
This guidance document summarizes the current status of basic, translational, and clinical hematology research and identifies areas of unmet scientific and medical need in Europe.
It is intended to help European and national policy makers, funding agencies, charities, research institutes, and researchers make decisions on initiating, funding, or developing research.
The guidance, “The European Hematology Association Roadmap for European Hematology Research: A Consensus Document,” is published in this month’s issue of haematologica.
“For the first time, hematologists in Europe came together to develop a roadmap to guide hematology research in Europe” said Andreas Engert, MD, chair of the EHA Research Roadmap Task Force.
“Hematology in Europe has achieved a lot, but the discipline must focus and collaborate to be efficient and remain successful in improving patient outcomes. The roadmap does just that and will determine the research agenda in Europe in the coming years.”
Roughly 300 experts from more than 20 countries—including clinicians, basic researchers, and patients—contributed to the roadmap. Stakeholders such as national hematology societies, patient organizations, hematology trial groups, and other European organizations were consulted to comment on the final draft version.
The final roadmap has 9 sections: normal hematopoiesis, malignant lymphoid and myeloid diseases, anemias and related diseases, platelet disorders, blood coagulation and hemostatic disorders, transfusion medicine, infections in hematology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The roadmap lists priorities and needs in these areas, including the need for targeted therapies based on genomic profiling and chemical biology, the need to eradicate minimal residual disease, and the need for treatments that are better tolerated by elderly patients.
“Now’s the time for Europe to pay attention,” said Ulrich Jäger, MD, chair of the EHA European Affairs Committee.
“With an aging population, the slow recovery from the financial and Euro crises, costly medical breakthroughs and innovations—quite a few of which involve hematology researchers—Europe faces increased health expenditures while budgets are limited.”
“Policy makers are rightfully cautious when spending the taxpayers’ money. So it is our responsibility to provide the policy makers with the information and evidence they need to decide where their support impacts knowledge and health most efficiently, to the benefit of patients and society. The Research Roadmap delivers on that. Now, it is up to the policy makers in the EU to deliver too.”
