A project driven by the Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality has been recognized with the Best Oral Communicaton award in the XX Spanish National congress of Hospitals and Sanitary Management, hold on 29, 30 and 39 March 2017 in Seville. The communication has the title: “Involucración de 370 hospitales en redes europeas de referencia para enfermedades raras” (in English, The involucration of over 370 hospitals in the European Reference Networks for Rare Diseases), by Víctor Reyes, Ángela Palop and Antonio Torres.
Víctor Reyes showed the results of participation of the European hospitals included in the European Reference Network (ERNs) for rare diseases, a project promoted by the European Commission and in collaboration with the Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality as an independent assessment body. The assessment the Agency performed in more than 900 reference units belonging to 370 hospitals in 26 member countries of the EU, has made it possible to evaluate compliance with the requirements to take part in the ERNs set by the Commission.
European Reference Networks
The Andalusian Agency for healthcare Quality collaborates with the European Commission as an independent assessment body for the recognition of these networks since last summer. For this purpose, the Commission, through the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA), has chosen ACSA. The Agency, body of the Consejeria de Salud (Regional Ministry of Health), competed against other European renowned assessment bodies, getting the highest score (95 out of 100) in the calls for proposals. His candidacy has also been supported by the Federación Española de Enfermadades Raras – FEDER (Spanish Federation for Rare Diseases).
Last December, thanks to the ACSA positive evaluation, the representatives of all member countries granted official recognition to these networks and approved the first list of European Reference Networks for the care of rare diseases and the centres that integrate them. It is published on the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Commission website. These 24 networks are currently working in the field of cancer, genetics, oncohematology, neurodegenerative diseases, pediatric pathologies, metabolopathies and various types of malformations.