COVID-19 AND CANCER

The COVID-19 epidemic is of concern to many cancer patients. Many of the European cancer patient organisations are providing information about COVID-19 and specific recommendations to their patient community. See the COVID-19 Resources of WECAN members

See also our Virtual Meeting Resource Center how to set up virtual meetings, conferences and AGMs during the pandemic.

WHO WE ARE

WECAN (see video) is an informal network of leaders of cancer patient umbrella organisations active in Europe.

MISSION

Our mission is to act as a well-coordinated cancer patient community towards all stakeholders by building levels of trust, collaboration, alignment and mutual support between pan-European cancer patient umbrella organisations

OBJECTIVES

• to improve outcomes for all cancer patients
• to collaborate, align and develop joint projects/actions
• to strengthen cancer advocacy in Europe
• to share workload when contributing to different stakeholder initiatives
• to provide resources for cancer patient organisations

GOVERNANCE AND FUNDING

WECAN is not a legal entity. Each member organisation nominates one representative and one alternate. WECAN has a rotating chairmanship. Any activity or project of WECAN is funded and implemented through the participating organisations and funded by unconditional financial support that they may raise for that individual activity.

RECENT AND ONGOING WECAN INITIATIVES

• Information about WECAN
  • Our video about the Workgroup of European Cancer Patient Advocacy Networks (WECAN)
    

• WECAN Academy: WECAN’s educational programme for patient advocates
  • WECAN Academy Knowledge Base: Our online knowledge base on the three educational pillars of successful patient advocacy
  • WECAN Academy Masterclass and SmartStart two capacity building programmes in patient advocacy. “Smart Start: Starting and Building a National Non-Profit Patient Group” focuses on “beginners” in advocacy. “Masterclass on Patient Advocacy”: for experienced patient advocacy leaders. Enrollment for the next WECAN Academy currently ongoing.
  • WECAN Science: Expert-level training course on science. Pioneer programme was run on 23-26 January 2020
  • NEW! WECAN Training Course “Patients in Publications”: Open-access online course for patient advocates on how publish their own research and survey data, and how to act as co-authors or peer-reviewers.
  • WECAN Training Programme on “Evidence-Based Advocacy: Evidence Generation and Publication”: One year training programme for patient advocates
  • WECAN Virtual Meeting Resource Center: how to set up virtual meetings, conferences and AGMs during the pandemic.

• Reasonable agreements between patient advocates and pharmaceutical industry
  • WECAN, in collaboration with various partners, has developed Guiding Principles and Reference Agreements for legal agreements between patient advocates and pharmaceutical companies.
  • Project page with all resources (guiding principles, reference agreements, other resources)
  • Press Release: WECAN workgroup of patient advocates and industry experts releases guiding principles for reasonable legal agreements between patient advocates and pharmaceutical companies (28 Nov 2018)

• Fair Market Value
  • Compensation for the work of patient advocates at Fair Market Value
  • Results of the WECAN Survey on Fair Market Value (6 March 2019)

• EU integration of Health Technology Assessment
  • WECAN position on further EU integration of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) (position paper, 22 June 2018)

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

WECAN was established to create new opportunities:

• Coordination and cooperation: WECAN provides the opportunity for leaders of pan-European cancer patient umbrella organisations to meet and discuss ideas and build consensus.
• Efficiency: WECAN provides a forum to discuss how and when to collaborate, to share information and workload reporting back to the group to increase transparency.
• Diversity and representativeness: As the number of meetings increases they cannot include a representative of all key indications, WECAN provides a platform where organisations can share information and a collective voice.
• Fostering new advocates: WECAN creates opportunities to involve and develop new cancer patient advocacy leaders and more capacity building.