Page 24 - EOE newsletter-12

E.O.E Newsletter | www.huanet.gr
ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ
INTERVIEW WITH
DR. MARIA J. RIBAL
NEW CHAIR OF EAU GUIDELINES OFFICE
Maria J. Ribal
Head of Multidisciplinary Urologic Oncology Unit Hospital Clinic of Barcelona
24
What does it means for you to be the new Chair of the EAU Guidelines Office and which are your future goals?
First of all, I should say that for me it is an immense honour to have the opportunity to lead the EAU Guidelines Office. I feel grateful for the trust. Since I started working on the GLs a long time ago, I’m perfectly aware of their history and of all the changes lived. I have learned to love them and respect them. The last period under the guidance and leadership of Prof. James N’Dow has been a very fruitful period with a deep revolution in the way our EAU Guidelines are conceived. The quality of the methodological process has been launched to achieve the excellence and he has demonstrated outstanding skills in methodology, research, management, getting our GLs positioned at the highest level. His example will be my motivation. Knowing the excellence achieved in recent years is a very important challenge and a great responsibility and I feel fully committed.
Since their creation, the guidelines have grown brilliantly in methodological quality and have positioned themselves in the world top of the clinical guidelines, so the first objective of my project will focus on consolidating the current structure of elaboration of the guidelines and improve it by developing areas such as prevention in urological
diseases, treatment of complications, the inclusion of patient reported outcomes and guidelines for the follow-up of patients. The second objective is focused on the field of healthcare: We must ensure that in Europe all patients are treated to the same
INFO
standard, in order to improve the quality of care and the homogenization of care. For this we must focus on achieving not only the dissemination of our guidelines but also their implementation.
Also, as a project we must take into account that current medicine is changing towards a more patient-centered model, so it is crucial to maintain the current initiative and consolidate the integration of patients in our guidelines to get recommendations that take into account their perspectives.
On the other hand, we are also undergoing a great revolution with data management and the integration of massive data analysis into the field of medicine. Therefore, our guidelines must be pioneers in the incorporation of real-world data and real-world evidence into their structure, methodology and production of recommendations. And finally, and as a consequence of everything mentioned above, we must focus our attention on going further and converting our guidelines in the reference for establishing health policies in urology at European level
What is your opinion about the present dispersion of the Guidelines? What you consider an area for improvement?
Clinical Guidelines are important because they promote the standardization and use of clinically appropriate and cost-effective care and mitigate against harmful practices. Ultimately, adherence to clinical guidelines is associated with improved patient outcomes.