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E.O.E Newsletter | www.huanet.gr
have. In fact, we've already got patients' reps on all our guideline panels. They bring their own unique perspective and have a say in decision-making. Patients are able to shed light on any unmet needs or gaps that we might overlook from a purely scientific standpoint. Their input provides a different lens through which we can understand the patients' perspective. Including patients' voices in guideline development is a total game-changer. It takes our recommendations to a whole new level. Sure, evidence is crucial, it's the backbone of what we do. But we can't ignore the importance of considering patients' preferences and values. So, let me emphasize, patient involvement is not just important, it is crucial. Their input and perspective are essential in producing guidelines that truly address the needs and preferences of the patients we serve.
T.S.: Do you think that young urologists, even residents, can contribute in some way to the Guidelines Office?
M.R.: They can contribute and they do! Already we have residents and young urologists in our Office. We have a very dedicated program that is the Associates Program. This program was created precisely just for incorporating the voice of the youngers. And they are working at our Office for such a long time. We train people, residents and young urologists, in methodology and how to build systematic reviews and meta-analyses and they are contributing enormously to the production of the Guidelines! So, they can and they do!
T.S.: Can you give us a hint about the next projects of the EAU Guidelines Office?
M.R.: Sure! Look, I will tell you for the very first time that we have already made publicly available the strategic plan of the Guidelines for the next five years. You can find it on the web page. And which are the four main red flags that we have in this strategic plan? The first one is to continue with the work that it has been done. Obviously, we are here for producing Guidelines. And we should maintain the quality of the Guidelines that have been produced till now. So, what we want to do is just to enforce this and also to improve a little bit, because there are perhaps some issues that still are not really well addressed in our Guidelines, like prevention, treatment of complications, incorporation of patient reported outcomes or core outcomes set. So, these are things that we want to incorporate into our Guidelines. There’s a second block in our
strategic plan fully dedicated to improve the way that we collaborate, not only with other scientific societies, urological and not urological, but also other groups in the Health System. We also have another important aspect we're focused on: analyzing and understanding the implementation of the EAU Guidelines. You see, it's not enough to just produce these guidelines and know that they're methodologically solid and all that jazz. We need to make sure they actually get out there and reach the people who need them. That's where our dedicated Dissemination Committee comes into play. Because, let's face it, if we create guidelines but they don't get disseminated effectively, they won't make an impact. Our ultimate goal is to see these guidelines put into action, leading to the changes and improvements we talked about earlier—better outcomes for our patients. So, this third aspect involves examining how our guidelines are being implemented and figuring out ways to enhance that implementation process. And the last part of the strategic plan of the Guidelines is to incorporate real-world data. Why? Because, we are producing recommendations mainly based on evidence-based medicine, based on studies that are like RCTs etc. But it’s true that in an RCT, perhaps, we have not wide representation of all the population. Perhaps, there are not elderly, there are not patients with impaired renal function. So, at the end, we are producing evidence for a very well selected population. Incorporating real-world data, analyzing all the data of all the patients, independently of their conditions and comorbidities, will give us a new way to produce evidence. And this will allow us to produce new type of recommendations. So, we will work on that!
T.S.: In 2009 you had received the 2009 Crystal Matula Award from the EAU. What did this award mean to you?
M.R.: I have it here in my office! Why I have it here? Because for me the Matula Award was the award. Honestly, I didn’t take it like a recognition. Of course, it was, but for me it was a big responsibility. It was like if someone told me at that moment “Look. We think that you can do things and you should try to do them”. For me it was an inspiration. This is the meaning of the Matula Award for me. It is an inspiration to continue trying to do my best and it is for that, that I have it here. Because I think that being recognized is nice but the best thing you can do is to continue to try to do your best and to learn. For me the Matula Award is an inspiration.
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