JANE - EU joint action
Creating Networks of Expertise in order to facilitate the improvement of diagnosis and treatment of people with cancer across Europe
The 2-year Joint Action on Networks of Expertise (JANE) was initiated in October 2022, financed as part the EU4Health Program. JANE, coordinated by Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (Italy) and supported by 34 other partners, is endorsed by the EU Commission, and aligns with the EU’s Beating Cancer Plan to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients across Europe.
The overall JANE goal was to shape seven new Networks of Expertise (NoE) in cancer field, organised as work packages (WP) in the following domains: personalized primary prevention; survivorship; palliative care; omic technologies; hi-tech medical resources; poor-prognosis cancer(s) and young adults with cancer. Five transversal task forces focus on issues important to cancer-related networking in the EU today. More explicitly, the objectives were to prepare everything necessary to launch the new NoEs, and to critically evaluate existing models of current and future EU networking with a view to optimize the functioning of the new NoEs and provide better access to health care services.
Oslo University Hospital has led the WP in Palliative Care. Our proof of concept was based on the Lancet Oncology Commission (Integration of oncology and palliative care: a Lancet Oncology Commission - ScienceDirect) to make PC part of routine cancer care in Europe. Five working groups were established focusing on basic elements to achieve this: defining the content of PC, indicators of PC, implementation, patient-centred pathways, and education/competence. Participants in the WGs come from 10 European countries besides Norway: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and UK. They have provided important contributions and valuable considerations to the WP6 work regarding the diversities in health care organisation in general and oncology/palliative care provision in particular in Europe.
The final JANE report is due in September and will be presented to the EU parliament on Sept. 25th.