COLLABORATIONS
The EUPSF is actively involved in various initiatives and collaborative projects.
ORCHESTRA - EU Horizon 2020 cohort to increase common and effective response to SARS-CoV2 Pandemic
ORCHESTRA is a three-year international research project aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic, led by the University of Verona and involving 26 partners (extending to a wider network of 37 partners) from 15 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Congo, France, Gabon, Germany, India, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Venezuela. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the ERAvsCORONA Action Plan which was developed jointly by Commission services and national authorities.
ORCHESTRA's goal is to establish an international large-scale cohort for the conduct of retrospective and prospective studies in order to generate rigorous evidence to improve the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and to be better prepared for future pandemics.
The EUPSF is part of the international expert committee of WP9: Global COVID-19 guidance.
Alliance for the Digitalisation of Medication Management in European Hospitals
Hospitals stock up to 200 medications at any time and patients are prescribed anything from 5 to 9 medications during an episode of hospital care. Availability, visibility and traceability of medication along hospitals’ medication management pathways are critical for patient safety, smooth hospital operations and the delivery of high-quality healthcare. Activities in this pathway are mostly manual and non-digitalised. Levels of digitalisation in European hospitals’ medication management pathways are low.
The Alliance for the Digitalisation of Medication Management in European Hospitals consists of 13 partner organisations and in the first year of activities , the Alliance, led by EHMA published a white paper and also a position paper on the proposed Regulation for a European Health Data Space (EHDS) emphasising the need to include medication treatment data from across the continuum of care in the Data Space.
In 2024, the Alliance, we wrote an open letter calling for a European Patient Safety Strategy to be urgently developed and adopted. This letter was sent in April by EHMA to all the members of the European Parliament, to the representatives of the European Council and to the European Health Commissioner, Mrs. Stella Kyriakides.
The call covers all types of adverse events, the most common cause being medication errors, and also refers to the impact of healthcare professional fatigue on patient safety. It urges the European institutions to take steps to develop such a strategy, building on the WHO's Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 and on existing European texts on patient safety.
The EUPSF is a member of the Alliance.
European researchers' network working on second victims (ERNST)
Second victims are healthcare providers involved in an unexpected adverse event, medical error or injury affecting a patient, who become victims in the sense they are traumatised by it.
The main aim of the ERNST Action is to facilitate discussion and share scientific knowledge, perspectives, and best practices concerning adverse events in healthcare institutions to implement joint efforts to support second victims and to introduce an open dialogue among stakeholders about the consequences of this phenomenon based on a cross-national collaboration that integrates different disciplines and approaches. For all of this, this network is linked with patient safety issues and the impact on the direct and/or indirectly involved healthcare professional.
This Action brings together for the first-time various disciplines (e.g. clinicians and jurists), backgrounds (e.g. scholars, journalists, in some cases deputies), and organizations (e.g. trade unions, patients’ associations, and governmental institutions) to create new knowledge from a wide range of perspectives. It is built on existing work and provides opportunities to re-think local, national, and international legislation, rules, and policies, to promote changes in the curricula of healthcare professions, to modify the traditional blame-culture, and to broaden the scope of interventions in healthcare.
The EUPSF is actively promoting the work of ERNST.
European Collaborative Action on Medication Errors and Traceability
Medication errors are a common cause of harm to patients in acute care settings and can include prescribing, preparation, dispensing and administration mistakes. These errors can lead to no harm, may be minor or range to major errors which can result in morbidity, mortality and poor quality of life for the patient, lack of efficacy of medication, suboptimal patient adherence and poor patient experience. In turn, these may have significant health and economic consequences, including the increased use of health services, preventable medication-related hospital admissions and death. High workloads and lack of health care personnel contribute to 23% of medication errors.
The Alliance aims to reduce medication errors and promote, at European and national levels, the implementation of comprehensive electronic traceability systems in hospital settings.
The EUPSF is a member of the Alliance.
