Dear colleagues,
The organization, development and success of the European Pathway Association are primarily due to the voluntary efforts of individual members of the society. Without these contributions, there would be no International Journal of Care Pathways (IJCP) to share our knowledge and experiences, no annual Care Pathways international conference in London, no international Summer School, no National Sections and meetings and conferences, no international research and networking, no smartgroup on pathways and no newsletters. Without these voluntary efforts there could be a risk that our association would cease to exist. Therefore, I want to encourage every member to consider how they might be able to support the development and organization of the E-P-A in the near future.
(more [183 KB] )

May 2009 was an important month for theEuropean Pathway Association.
On May 28th the first formal E-P-A council meeting was held in Leuven! This milestone represents the
transformation from “a group of friends” to a formal, independent International Association.
As you know, the Council is formed by the chairpersons from the National Sections. In this
issue of our newsletter, the chair and co-chairpersons will introduce themselves.
And there is more exiting news.
As you mayalready know, the Journal of Integrated CarePathways has transformed into the International
Journal of Care Pathways. More information on all of this in this newsletter [1.149 KB] .

E-P-A NEWSLETTER 5th edition, October 2008 [223 KB]

Before starting to summarize the contents of this newsletter let me express my satisfaction in telling you that gradually we are becoming a dynamic, healthy and really independent international Association. I say this with great pleasure because when we started E-P-A in 2004, I was somewhat worried about the sustainability of our Association. When we met the first time in Jesi, Italy, we had so many dreams and goals but we were just “a group of friends” with ideas, enthusiasm about the opportunity of international knowledge sharing and research but no real perspectives. Now not only 2 editions summer school have been successfully performed without any sponsorship, but also thanks to the work of Kris Vanhaecht and of our younger colleagues (Svin Deneckere, Fabrizio Leigheb and Cathy Lodewijckx) the European Quality of Care Pathways project has been successfully started, the E-P-A new statutes are now ready and last but not least the Association’s membership increased again. So, I can say today that I am a happy President.

Regards,

M. Panella, E-P-A President

More info in this newsletter. [223 KB]

We are happy to share with you this newsletter of the European Pathway Association.

Unfortunately we have to open this edition remembering that our friend, Professor Don Hindle has been still missing in Namadgi National Park. All pathways people were inspired by Don’s energy and enthusiasm and by his incessant work in promoting care pathways world wide but today we want to remember our friend Don, his humanity, his moral values and his commitment to social justice. He will be sorely missed.

More info in this newsletter [1.220 KB] .

Dear colleagues,

We are happy to present you the third newsletter of the European Pathway Association. [1.437 KB]

This newsletter is a special edition. We will focus on the first International Summer School on Care Pathways, which was organised in September 2007 at Lago Orta in Italy.
The goal of this summer school was to teach the basic principles of care pathways and start international knowledge sharing between novice and expert pathway managers from all over the world. 31 persons from 16 different countries participated. Teaching courses, interactive discussions, workshops, markets and group-work were combined to enhance the knowledge of all participants.
In this Special Edition of the E-P-A newsletter you will find the feedback that some of the delegates have sent us. If you want more information from them, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will provide you further contact details.
We hope to organise a next international summer school - with minor revisions based on the evaluations and the feedback - in September 2008. The venue will stay Lago Orta, a beautiful lake in the North of Italy. If you already want to have more information on the 2008 summer school, please read the last page of this newsletter.
Our next newsletter will be published in February 2008 and will include news on pathways from our international representatives, conference reports and an overview of the latest literature. If you want to include your news on pathways, please get in touch our editor Ruben Van Zelm.

Warm regards,
Dr. Kris Vanhaecht & Prof. Dr. Massimiliano Panella
Co-Chair European Pathway Association

The European Pathway Association will publish its newsletter 2 times a year.
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NEWSLETTER EDITION MARCH 2007:

Dear colleagues,

We hereby present the second newsletter of the European Pathway Association (E-P-A). The association involved in the support of the clinical / care pathway concept. As you can see, the newsletter has a new lay-out which we hope you will find more attractive.

In this issue we will initially focus on the first international summer school on care pathways which will be held in September in Italy. This summer school is organised to support pathway facilitators. International knowledge sharing is one of the main goals of this summer school, and international it will be. At this moment colleagues from 14 different countries will participate: Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, Mongolia, Belgium, Italy, Germany, England, Denmark, The Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Senegal, Japan and Finland.

If you still want to participate, you can download the application form from the E-P-A.org website. All the applications are reviewed by the scientific committee of the summer school.

This newsletter also brings you an update of care pathway initiatives in Spain, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, England, Scotland and Japan.

We would sincerely like to thank our Japanese colleagues for the positive collaboration between E-P-A and the Japanese Society.
An overview of care pathway events can also be found in this newsletter. Do not forget to check the www.E-P-A.org website for updates on pathway events.
A new care pathway network was recently launched in Ireland. The Irish Care Pathway Association is led by Marie Kehoe, E-P-A board member. We want to congratulate all our Irish colleagues with this new initiative. An update on their work will be published in the next newsletter.
A special issue of the Journal of Nursing Management was published on care pathways (J. Nurs. Man, 2006, Volume 14, issue 7). Claire Whittle, E-P-A board member, was guest editor and will give you more information on the content of the special issue.
As promised in the first newsletter we will update you on the new literature on care pathways to support knowledge sharing and improve the use of evidence in pathways.
If you have news on your care pathway projects, please do not hesitate to send us your information, we will be happy to publish it in the next issue.

Kris Vanhaecht & Massimiliano Panella
Co-Chair European Pathway Association


You can download the first issue (sept 2006) of the newsletter here [153 KB] . Also the second E-P-A newsletter (march 2007) is downloadable for free here [165 KB] .

You can become member by joining the "EPA on Pathways" discussion forum and will receive the EPA newsletter.

If you want to publish your pathway info in this newsletter, please get in contact with Ruben Van Zelm at the Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement.