First Focus IN CD press conference in Rijeka (Croatia)

On Friday, 7th October 2016, at the headquarters of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Slogin kula 2, 51000 Rijeka, the partners of the “Focus IN CD” project from Croatia and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, have organized the joint press conference to present the project to the general public.

The project with the full title “Innovative patient centred health care services – advantages of establishing a close network in celiac disease patient health care” was presented by: 

• PhD Đulija Malatestinić, med. dr. - Head of the County department for health,
• Mrs. Alemka Mirkov – “Focus in CD” project manager for the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
• PhD Goran Palčevski, med. dr. – Head of the Department of pediatrics’, University hospital center Rijeka
• Mrs. Marina Milinović, legal representative of the Association of celiac patients, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County

The presenters explained that the Focus IN CD project deals with the challenge of using the innovative potential in the public sector better, with the integration of social innovations into the health system with the objective to bring the system closer to patients, with the establishing of an integrated treatment for ensuring healthier and active ageing of the population.

They announced that through the project a system of e-training for healthcare practitioners will be developed, pilot testing on 10 new services will be performed and that, based on the results of testing, an integrated model for celiac disease patient treatment will be prepared. It was pointed out that this model will be applicable in other environments and for other chronic diseases. They also explained the role of each partner in the project, explained the reasons why they found the project very interesting to join and work on it. They presented the value of the project in numbers. During the conference the program Interreg Central Europe 2014-2020 was presented too.

After some questions from the public, some characteristics and manifestations of the celiac disease were described. The importance of early diagnostic of celiac disease was explained.

            The general impression of the conference, based on questions from the public, was that people who are not having problems are not very much informed about the disease. The activities during the project should contribute to change this.