The Global Europe Initiative - GEI

Dear colleagues and friends,

Few years ago the European Society of Geriatric Medicine (EuGMS) took the initiative to reinforce its actions in spreading the educational activities and high professional standards across European continent and in particular in the countries where geriatric medicine is still emerging or has yet to obtain well-established professional and scientific independence and recognition.

Indeed, the under-representation of colleagues from European countries with emerging geriatric medicine was evident when looking at EuGMS statistics from the period 2015-2018, showing that 50% of participants at our annual congresses came from only 5 European EuGMS member countries out of the 35 countries members of our Society at that time and out of the 53 countries included in the WHO list for the European region. Similar figures were also observed in other activities of the Society, such as the Special Interest Groups, Task & Finish groups, education and research activities, etc.

In addition, similarly to most other European Academic Medical Societies, EuGMS aims to reinforce the relations and collaboration with non-European Mediterranean countries in which an increasing number of physicians try to develop the geriatric medicine.

In order to accomplish these ambitious goals, EuGMS created in 2018 the Global Europe Initiative (GEI) group which includes active members of the EuGMS coming from all over Europe mainly from Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Mediterranean countries.

A- Axes of action of the GEI:

With the support of the Executive and the General Assembly of our Society, GEI started developing concrete actions within three axes:

  1. Mapping Geriatric Medicine throughout the European region
    Establishing stable connections and collaboration with the countries where geriatric medicine is till emerging will only be possible through reliable and reactive referent persons. Members of the GEI Group are invited to share personal contacts with the Group and to set professional basis for future joint actions. The GEI group has already identified such referent persons in more than 10 countries with the above described characteristics.
  2. Facilitate the participation in the annual Congress of the EuGMS
    GEI decided to propose scientific and financial opportunities for junior physicians, medical students and other health professionals coming from these countries. In this respect, we have already proposed some financial facilities for participating in the Berlin Congress and such measurements have now been significantly amplified for the upcoming Cracow Congress.
  3. Promote joint actions (seminars, workshops etc.) with local societies and groups of physicians in different countries. Since the creation of the GEI group several joint actions have been developed or are scheduled for 2019 in many countries targeted by the GEI group.

B- Main activities of the GEI since its creation

1. Inaugural session

- The first GEI meeting took place in in Thessaloniki, Greece in
2019 with representatives of 10 balcan countries(Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.  
During 2 days the participants focused the debates on the topic of  “Geriatric patient in need for chronic care: from community to institution and back”

A scientific publication has been produced with the proceedings of this meeting :

Kotsani M, Ellul J, Bahat G, Bogdanovic N, Burazeri G, Erceg P, Petreska-Zovic B, Prada GI, Smyrnakis E, Veninšek G, Zamboulis C, Martin FC, Petrovic M, Benetos A. Start low, go slow, but look far: the case of geriatric medicine in Balkan countries. Eur Geriatr Med. 2020 Oct;11(5):869-878. doi: 10.1007/s41999-020-00350-x. Epub 2020 Jun 25. PMID: 32588380.

 

2. GEI meetings in the main program of the annual EuGMS Congresses

Since 2019 the GEI organized specific sessions in the annual EuGMS congresses aiming to compare diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic strategies in different countries especially in countries with emerging geriatrics. The topics of these sessions are summarized below:

2019 Krakow             Atrial fibrillation,

2020 e-congress        COVID-19,

2021 Athens              Nutrition in NHs,

2022 London             Orthogeriatrics,

2023 Helsinki            Oncogeriatrics.

During these meetings representatives of Croatia, Greece (3), Hungary (3), Israel, Lebanon, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland , Portugal, Romania, Russia (3), Serbia, Slovenia, Tunisia (2), Turkey (3) had the opportunity to discuss their own practices experiences and practices with those of the other countries

Such a session is also organized this year during the EuGMS Congress in Valencia on the topic of the “Initial Geriatric Assessment in different clinical settings” with representatives from Croatia, France and Tunisia. Interestingly, the exchanges between countries with developed geriatric medicine with those in which GM is still emerging is also very interesting for both sides. 

3. Core curriculum sessions during the annual Congress

Since 2023, the Executive Board asked the GEI to organize one educational session during the annual EuGMS Congress.

2023 (Helsinki) Community based management of older people: where do we stan

2024 (programmed in Valencia): Management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Frail Older Adults,"

4. Spring of Geriatrics (Sprin-G):  An annual EuGMS pluridisciplinary event in the frame of an educational program developed by the GEI

In order to further develop the spirit of the GEI, we created in 2022 the Spring-G event based on the 4 following concepts:

  • THEME: Ageing Trajectories  - Healthy aging is a life-long dynamic process. Sprin-G aims to promote applications of strategies and policies in the Society 
  • FORMAT: Sprin-G complements scientific, social and cultural aspects.
  • TIME: Continuity is fundamental to promoting sustainable positive transformations.
  • SPACE: Sprin-G embraces the spirit of the EuGMS Global Europe Initiative to contribute to the development of geriatric medicine all over Europe. For this reason, the event will be organized to a different country every year

So far 3 SPRIN-G events have been organized:

2021: Rome

2022: Bucharest

2023: Istanbul

(see below)

 

5. Initiation of the PROGRAMMING COST Action.

The GEI initiated the idea for the creation of this Action that was financed by the COST European progamme https://www.cost.eu/ CA21122

 

Perspectives

Our main objective is to further develop our group by better structuring its organization, in order to continue the projects undertaken and also to develop new activities such as:

  • Continue the efforts for developing educational tools and programs for the non-geriatric health professional all over Europe even after the end of the COST Action ,
  • Evaluating the applicability of the guidelines created by our Company in countries without developed geriatrics.

The GEI is open to all people who realise the need for a global development of geriatrics all over Europe and in the Mediterranean Countries.

Prof. Athanase Benetos
Chair of the GEI group