CPME Spring Magazine focuses on pharmaceutical policy reform and the independence of the medical profession under threat
The editorial by CPME Vice President Dr Péter Álmos concludes that while the revision of the EU’s pharmaceutical legislation holds immense potential to create a more agile, patient-centred, and resilient system, its true success, will be decided during the implementation. The article is complemented with a report on our recent event on safeguarding bioethics in the revision of the Clinical Trials Regulation proposed in the EU Biotech Act. Benedetta Baldini of the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) provides a guest article considering the balance between sustainability and competitiveness at a defining moment for European pharmaceutical policy.
We are honoured to include an interview with Emer Cooke, Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency. Following the extension of her term until April 2027, we discussed EMA’s extended mandate, future challenges and the role of healthcare professionals.
The letter from CPME President Dr Ole Johan Bakke outlines that safeguarding the independence of the medical profession is a fundamental necessity for the well-being of patients, public trust, and medical ethics, and lies at the core of our democracies and societies. He invites readers to consider how we can work together as patients, physicians and policy-makers to defend the medical profession. Our special report includes examples from the British Medical Association, French Medical Council, Hungarian Medical Chamber, Turkish Medical Association, and the Israeli Medical Association, illustrated with perspectives from CPME members.
The WHO Regional Committee for Europe provides a sobering contribution on the Mental Health of Nurses and Doctors (MeND) report, the largest-ever survey of its kind. The report sets out seven concrete, achievable actions that can transform working conditions and protect the mental health of health professionals.
Prof. Haralampos Karanikas of the University of Thessaly introduces the i2X project, which is shaping Europe’s digital health future. CPME is a project partner, bringing doctors’ voices to developers through a survey aiming to understand how doctors and other healthcare professionals interact with digital tools, the barriers they face and how these systems could be improved to make them more intuitive and clinically useful.
CPME Senior EU Policy Adviser Markus Kujawa explains why the new European plan to prevent cardiovascular diseases may fall short without further effective legislative proposals, and we report on a call for European countries to increase vaccination coverage and tackle misinformation. Finally, we include a summary of the last CPME General Assembly held in Athens, which discussed Greek and European health policy challenges during the centenary year of the Panhellenic Medical Association.