Thomas Hofmarcher: To my great joy Austrian Health Ministry is already working on an update of the Austrian Cancer Plan

Thomas Hofmarcher, Research Director of the Swedish Institute for Health Economics, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Back to my roots! It doesn’t happen often that I give a presentation in Austria, let alone in German language. At an event in the newly renovated Parliament to mark the 10-year anniversary of the Austrian Cancer Plan, I had the great honor to speak about how good Austria’s cancer care system compares to the rest of the EU countries. My keynote talk was followed by a very engaging and insightful discussion of leading local experts – Christina Dietscher, Danijela Dohnal-Suvajac, Wolfgang Hilbe, Anita Kienesberger, Paul Sevelda – and a great audience.

My key message was that Austria ranks in the upper tier of the EU (around 10th place) in terms of survival rates. Interestingly, this corresponded well with the audience’s expectation. But – and that is important – the audience indicated that they would like to see Austria being in the top 3!!! Great to see this level of ambition. More work and implementation of innovative, evidence-based measures in all areas of cancer care along with structural reforms will be required to propel Austria to the top 3.

To my great joy, we learned during the event that the Austrian Health Ministry is already working on an update of the Austrian Cancer Plan. The future looks bright for cancer patients in Austria!

Thank you to the organizers for an amazing event and to Claudia Schanza for an excellent moderation.”

Source: Thomas Hofmarcher/LinkedIn