The next EAU Congress aims to address the “patient-physician disconnect”

Prostate cancer patients and their organisations are being given a new international platform to present their work. From next year, the European Association of Urology (EAU) is introducing a new “Patient Poster Track” at its annual Congress.

The EAU Congress is Europe’s largest and most influential gathering of urologists and related health care professionals. Poster sessions are an opportunity to showcase studies and discuss them with congress delegates, and EAU is now inviting patient advocates from across the globe to submit poster proposals based on their work for the congress in Milan in March 2021.

The “patient-physician disconnect” will be one of the themes at the Congress. “Studies have shown there is often a gap between what the physician recommends, based on scientific evidence combined with experience, and what patients prefer in terms of outcome, side effects and maintaining a good quality of life,” says EAU Adjunct Secretary Hein Van Poppel.

“As a result, healthcare professionals may appear to be out of sync with health-related quality-of-life matters that a patient wants to discuss.”

“This is why the EAU is offering patient advocates the opportunity to present their research into diagnostics, treatments and follow-ups that could cast a fresh light on health-related quality-of-life issues and address presumptions that exist regarding these issues.”

Europa Uomo supports the initiative. Chairman André Deschamps said: "As seen during the analysis of our EUPROMS data, there is a big difference in how patients and healthcare professionals perceive prostate cancer treatment effects. We must bridge that gap together."

EAU is calling for patient research insights into diagnostics, treatments and follow-ups. If you are interested in submitting an abstract, go to EAU’s patient information website for more details.