Pictures
Participants
Ramiro Veríssimo (Portugal), Kristina Orth-Gomér (Sweden), Dan Dumitrascu, (Romania), Gabriele Moser (Austria), Arnstein Finset (Norway), Wolfgang Albert (Germany), Chris Fezekas (Austria), Herbert Menzel (Germany), Theo Leydenbach (France), Rene Oosterwijk (Netherlands), Hans-Christian Deter (Germany)
Guests: Neil Schneiderman (USA), Julian Thayer (USA)
Minutes
H-C Deter and R. Veríssimo opened the meeting with an introduction in the history and the tasks of the ENPM. After some problems with the implementation of the ENPM Homepage, it is now working at http://www.enpm.eu/. The names of the contact persons of the membership nations were announced and important topics of interest were summarized.
Contact persons
The president of this conference Tom Sensky (UK), the president elect Giovanni Fava (Italy) and the second president elect Arnstein Finset, accepted to be contact persons for their countries on the ENPM homepage. The same happens for G. Moser (Austria), T. Leydenbach (France) and P. Fink (Denmark).
A. Finset confirmed that ICPM welcomed the ENPM initiative and will give support for the ENPM (e.g. links to the both websites). But he preferred not to see a new organizational structure. He supported the idea of a free network with research focus and collaboration and exchange of all interested. Supporting the network for the international society of behavioural medicine (ISBM), Neil Schneiderman questioned the development of a new society (ENPM) for international discussions. There are other places, like the ISBM for this need. Everybody is invited to take part. H-C. Deter stressed the interests and tasks of the ENPM and the need for European initiatives in the clinical field (like Guidelines, see below). N. Schneiderman saw a possibility that the regional European groups of the ISBM can come into the ENPM. He will give his support to this idea. The need for common European initiatives in the clinical field, however, remains. C. Fezekas gave a report about the Austrian network of Psychosomatic Medicine where he is the co-ordinator. We advertised a link to the ENPM.
Introduction of PM clinical guidelines in EuropeAt this conference a symposium was held about guidelines with Kristina Orth-Gomér, Neil Schneiderman, Gabriele Moser and Hans-Christian Deter, which was very successful and extensively discussed.
K.Orth-Gomér reported about the guideline initiative in cardiovascular disease prevention.
At the formation of a Joint European Task Force, eight different groups were included as co-authors for the clinical interdisciplinary guidelines. Representing the ISBM she introduced behavioural factors into the clinical guidelines. Links of the ENPM with other clinical societies like the European society of Cardiology seems helpful.
G. Moser has now accepted to be a contact person for gastrointestinal European guidelines on the ENPM homepage. The members of the meeting supported this proposal.
W. Albert announced as a member of the group the possibility to join the European transplantation guidelines (which are in preparation) into the ENPM.
There is an initiative of G. Fava within the ICPM for a psychosomatic training of physicians treating several patient groups e.g. with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or oncological patients etc. In this initiative he will cooperate with Tom Wise from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine to give a international psychosomatic diploma. G. Schüssler, Austria will be contacted for common meetings and symposia (ECPR 2008) for this initiative.
R. Veríssimo (e-mail: rave@netcabo.pt) mentioned the need for bringing all information about contacts and activities on the ENPM website http://www.enpm.eu/ He gave the shape, but the activities and information should come from the interested researchers and national societies.
Main important topic is the contact to all national psychosomatic societies. We have only links to the German, Portuguese and Italian Psychosomatic Society on our homepage!
Advertising and public relations of the ENPM should come through all members and users of the website. New ideas to send information to all researchers in Europe, who were interested, were helpful.
H. Menzel proposed a “political corner” to combine actions in the political European field. Other ideas of the participants also seem interesting — but the focus of this ENPM should concentrate on combining research and teaching activities in the psychosomatic field in Europe.Hans-Christian Deter
