Prof. Dr. Xenofon Baraliakos, Medical Director of the Rheumazentrum Ruhrgebiet, Herne, and Professor for Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, is the new president of the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR).
During his two-year term, he plans to implement a number of measures aimed at further improving patient care at the European level.
As a European umbrella organization, EULAR is based on three central pillars: scientific rheumatology societies, rheumatology patient organizations, and medical professional organizations from all European countries. EULAR’s goal is to continuously improve care for rheumatology patients across Europe. To this end, EULAR promotes excellence in rheumatology education and research. It also advocates for greater international focus on the needs of people with rheumatic diseases. Prof. Baraliakos’ plans for his term as president are in line with EULAR’s goals.
• Specialist training to be standardized across Europe
“An important concern for me is to promote the training of future rheumatologists,” he says. To this end, for example, additional online courses are to be created and existing ones expanded. Another goal of the EULAR President is to standardize specialist training across Europe. In Germany, specialist training in rheumatology takes either six or eight years, depending on whether you choose rheumatology from the outset or only later. In other countries, specialist training is regulated differently. As a result, specialist training in one country is often not recognized in another country, meaning that a doctor cannot practice there, or can only do so to a limited extent. Prof. Baraliakos would like to work towards ensuring that specialist training in rheumatology is recognized throughout Europe and standardized at the European level so that in future all rheumatologists in Europe will have the same qualifications and experience.
• Harnessing research potential in Eastern and Southern Europe
Another of Prof. Baraliakos’ goals is to bring the level of research in Southern and Eastern Europe up to the level in Central and Western Europe. “There is a lot of untapped potential” reveals Prof. Baraliakos. The knowledge and qualifications are there, but often the research funding and framework conditions for research projects are lacking. To this end, the EULAR Research Centre is to be further expanded. The online platform offers rheumatologists opportunities to initiate and finance scientific projects.
• Expanding the international patient registry
In addition, Prof. Baraliakos would like to expand the pan-European registry and raise awareness of it during his term of office. The registry is a comprehensive, anonymized database of rheumatism patients and their diseases. It contains information such as how many rheumatologists there are in Europe, how often patients visit them, and which medications are most commonly used for which rheumatic diseases. The registry is an important basis for rheumatological research, which in turn benefits the improvement of patient care.
