Get crucial updates and skills-building on patient engagement

Patient poster session

On 10 March 2023, Patient Day will kick off with the Patient Poster Session which will address crucial issues of this year. Patient advocates, nurses, urologists, and researchers have submitted abstracts ranging from solutions, novel approaches, and best practices revolving around:

• Physical and psychological well-being
• Finance and work
• Patient involvement in clinical research, communication, development of care pathways, and clinical guidelines
• Patient engagement/advocacy in healthcare policy

All abstracts have been anonymously reviewed by a team of reviewers and carefully selected by the EAU Patient Office board.

Roundtable 1: Patient-physician communication

After the poster session, three interesting roundtable discussions will follow. The first one will address communication between HCPs and patients, which is a follow-up of the first Patient Poster Session “Disconnect between the physician and patient” that premiered in 2019. It uncovered a range of unmet needs all of which are described in the article: ‘Key Messages from the EAU Patient Poster Session EAU21 – What have we learned?’ This year, we will be honing in on one of those unmet needs: the doctor-patient communication. Doctor-patient communication is vital in the delivery of high-quality healthcare. You will hear from an expert, patients and patient advocates, examples of best practices to improve patient experience, as well as how patient engagement interventions do not only improve health but survival in cancer patients.

Roundtable 2: What is cystitis?

Although anyone can develop cystitis, it is more frequently experienced by women. Almost half of all women will experience at least one episode of cystitis in their lifetime. Nearly one in three women will have had at least one episode of cystitis by the age of 24. During this roundtable, taxonomy and nomenclature as well as a management plan and the perspective of a patient are all part of the discussion. At the end of the roundtable, delegates will be able to differentiate the types of cystitis and their treatment options.

Roundtable 3: Surviving urological cancer and chronic disability from urological disease

The patient experience is the central focal point when coping with and managing postoperative morbidity, especially urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction following cancer treatment. These are some of the common challenges patients face as part of their treatment, which will be discussed during this roundtable.

Presentation skills workshop

Due to popular demand, the Patient Office will offer patient advocates and nurses the opportunity to develop or improve their presentation skills through workshops to be led by British science journalist and author, Vivienne Parry. She hosts medical programmes for BBC Radio 4, writes widely on health, presents films, facilitates many high-level conferences and debates, and trains young researchers. Vivienne will host special patient-oriented workshops during the Annual Congress on the following days: Thursday 14:00-17:00 every hour on the hour (duration: 45 min), Friday 08.00 – 08.45 and 16:00-16:45 and Saturday 09:30-10:15. You can register by sending an email to info.patientinformation@uroweb.org. Don’t miss out on the opportunity, learn to captivate and inspire your audience with a personal style of presenting.

Flip the classroom

When the subject of patient advocacy is brought up, do you wonder about the breadth of issues and responsibilities that it entails? EAU23 will premiere the Clinical Leadership Development Workshop, which will focus on unlocking patient advocacy to improve clinical practice and patient care. This is your opportunity to increase your understanding of the significance and benefit of patient involvement and empowerment. The EAU, in collaboration with the International Kidney Cancer Coalition (IKCC), will organise a two-hour workshop that will give you the ins and outs of patient involvement in research prioritisation, clinical trials, guidelines development, and more. Dr. Michael Jewett from Toronto, Canada, who gave impressive presentations on the subject at EAU22: ”Patient engagement is a potential blockbuster treatment that urologists should prescribe for their cancer patient” and “A clinician’s experience of the benefits and value of patient advocacy”, will join us again to talk about what patient engagement means, how this can potentially improve your clinical practice, and most importantly, patient outcomes. We encourage urologists and nurses to join us and flip the classroom on our experts!

Patient engagement to the max

As we continue to prepare for our Patient Day, we would like to acknowledge the continuing contributions of the following patient organisations, Cancer Patients Europe (CPE), the European Cancer Leagues (ECL), Europa Uomo, the HungerNdThurst Foundation, the IKCC, ORCHID, the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition (WBCPC) and the World Federation for Incontinence and Pelvic Problems (WFIPP). These groups provide an invaluable open channel between the EAU Patient Office, HCPs and patients which allows us to develop the best possible platforms for patients. Along with the contributions of patient organisations, we would like to acknowledge and thank the principal supporter of EAU23 Patient Day, Pfizer Oncology. It is because of the support and these collaborations that we are able to organise a day like this. We look forward to seeing you in Milan and hope to see you in one of our sessions!

This article first appeared in the Oct-Jan 2023 edition of European Urology Today.