Welcome from EBAP's President

The Presidency of EBAP as an important and exciting challenge and I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Management Council to achieve a number of goals.

Continuing postgraduate education and professional development are central to the provision of optimum clinical care to patients with Respiratory disease. There is a very wide range of educational opportunity in Europe through courses, seminars and congresses, in addition to virtual platforms such as the web and journals. Formal assessment and accreditation of such activities are essential to ensure appropriate standards, and EBAP is the principal responsible agency in Respiratory medicine at a European level. As EBAP President, I will continue to develop this core activity in collaboration with my colleagues on the Management Council.

Important progress has been made in recent years in developing links with UEMS, which facilitates co-operation and common assessment of postgraduate education in Respiratory medicine. I believe there is scope to further develop these links in the coming years.

With the increasing requirement for documented postgraduate continuing medical education (CME) towards maintenance of specialist certification, postgraduate training, certification and CME can be viewed as a continuous process. I believe EBAP could play a major role in the co-ordination of education, training and continuing professional development of European specialists in Respiratory Medicine and I will work towards these objectives in a sensitive and co-operative fashion with National and European Agencies, in addition to other groups within the Society, particularly the ERS School. There may also be scope for EBAP to play a role in the accreditation of training centres.

The HERMES project represents a major achievement of the ERS School and provides common European standards for education and training in Respiratory Medicine, in addition to an examination leading to a specialist diploma. I believe there is scope to develop and integrate links between EBAP and HERMES in post-graduate training, certification and continuing professional development and I will engage with members of the HERMES Task Force towards this objective.

In most European countries, National Agencies are responsible for training and certification of Respiratory Specialists and there may be reluctance on the part of some Agencies to accept a common European approach. As EBAP President, I will engage with National Agencies in a sensitive and co-operative fashion to promote common standards in postgraduate training and continuing professional development. FERS, which was established during my year as ERS President, provides an important mechanism to support these developments.

The developments to date by ERS and sections within the Society such as EBAP and the School are impressive, and position the Society as the leading force in education and training in Respiratory Medicine at a European level. As President of EBAP, I would work to further develop and consolidate this position.

Prof. Walter McNicholas
EBAP President

Cooperation Agreement signed with the UEMS/EACCME

EBAP signed a cooperation agreement in 2009 with the UEMS/EACCME.

Under the terms of this agreement, all applications in the field of Pneumology will be evaluated by EBAP. EBAP will review the quality and independence of the CME events or products.

In this evaluation process, EBAP will work according to EACCME rules and will liaise with the UEMS/EACCME office for submission of the accreditation requests to the relevant National Accreditation Authority in order to obtain their recognition of the European Accreditation.

 View full agreement with the UEMS/EACCME