FIRST ANNUAL HEALTH ECONOMICS
& PERSONALISED MEDICINE SYMPOSIUM:
CREATING A PERSONALISED MEDICINE PARADIGM
FOR ONCOLOGY
LUXEMBOURG, 18-19 JUNE 2012
INTRODUCTION
Dear Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the First Annual Health Economics and Personalised Medicine Symposium:
Creating a Personalised Medicine Paradigm for Oncology, jointly presented by the Centre de Recherche Public de la
Sante (CRP-Santé), the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG Sanco) of the European Commission, and
the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, USA. We are delighted to host international experts from a range
of stakeholder groups including academia, healthcare and industry, to explore key issues at the interface of health
economics, personalised medicine and oncology.
In Luxembourg, we recognize that integrating health economics into the research enterprise is essential to achieving our
vision of translating scientific knowledge into clinical applications impacting healthcare. Our intent today is to establish a
framework and public dialogue for health economics in the context of emerging trends toward personalized medicine in
oncology, recognizing that success will require strong collaboration between experts in a broad range of disciplines.
We hope the program will identify priority areas for research and health policy development related to personalized
medicine in oncology, and inspire new collaborations to address pressing needs at the intersection of these disciplines.
I thank you for your participation, and look forward to productive discussion and interactions throughout the symposium.
Sincerely,
Jean-Claude Schmit, CEO
CRP-Santé
OBJECTIVE OF THE CONFERENCE
Personalised medicine offers the promise of improving cancer care by allowing clinicians to tailor treatments based on
patients' molecular and epidemiologic profiles. Because of the unique nature of personalised medicine and how it is
applied in health care, finding efficient and effective ways to evaluate and adopt these technologies poses particular
challenges for health systems, clinicians, and patients. This goal of this highly interactive symposium is to highlight and
discuss issues decision makers at all levels must consider to promote the most effective development and use of
personalised medicine technologies for cancer. Several clinical case studies of personalised oncology care will be
examined to facilitate the discussion. The overall objective of the symposium is to identify research priorities, policies and
programs to facilitate the development of evidence that can support the adoption of high value personalized medicine
technologies for oncology in Europe.
HEALTH ECONOMICS RESEARCH CENTRE
BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
As part of an overall strategy to enhance the impact of biomedical research on the effectiveness and efficiency of health
care delivery, both in Luxembourg and globally, CRP-Santé is establishing a Health Economics Research Centre
(HERC). The center is expected to develop unique competence in applied research related to the economic aspects of
personalized medicine and molecular diagnostics. A core goal of the HERC is to ensure that biomedical innovations are
translated into cost-effective care and improved health for the Luxembourg population. A secondary and long-term goal
of the center will be to serve as a national knowledge center for provision or analysis of public health information,
particularly as it relates to personalized medicine.
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Health Economics Research Centre is to improve the health of the Luxembourg population by
conducting high-quality health economics research at the interface between molecular diagnostics, personalized
medicine and public health. The center will facilitate the translation of research results into improved health care by
identifying cost-effective health care strategies and technologies to prevent and treat illness, and engaging
multidisciplinary collaborators within Luxembourg’s healthcare delivery system to devise efficient and effective
implementation strategies. Core research activities will include innovation and excellence in developing theoretical and
applied methods for health technology assessment, performing cost and cost-effectiveness analyses, health care
decision modeling, and health care policy research as they apply to emerging diagnostics.