Prof. Yazid Belkacemi

AROME President

AROME in 4 steps (Conception, Foundation, Creation, Action)

Dear friends,

(Conception)

We were created one day in April 2006 on a boulevard which could have been in Athens, Tunis or at a practical debate on cytostatic expedition in Macedonia. It suddenly, became obvious that Mediterranean countries were a must, not only in culture, but also in strategic co-operation and partnership for the management of our patients. A Mediterranean association gathering medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons and other actors… was to be created, AROME, so as to tackle specifically the area training needs and find solutions as well as suited funding. Our goal right from the beginning was to gather the bright forces of Mediterranean countries so that everybody feels concerned. It is essential for you to become a representative of AROME in your country to create small AROME’s /country to form the big AROME … the CROWNING PIECE.

Our association will stand apart from the usual aims of traditional conferences… we won’t offer to create a new yearly conference with sessions of authoritative lectures; we’d rather choose a newmethod!… The point is to stick to the existing yearly conferences of our scientific committees!!!
By organizing practical workshops on themes chosen by the local scientific committee, we shall manage to exchange practices, with debates on “real life” cases between the organizers and experts of AROME to compare our opinions on current practices regarding the literature and possibilities to optimize strategies locally developed …
Such sessions organized within a yearly conference cannot be carried out without you… . To reach our goal, everybody must feel committed. Ultimately, we could create bridges between services and people in such a way that exchanges and sponsorships will follow naturally. All students and specialists of all kinds around the Mediterranean shall thus gain a mutual wealth of experiences thanks to organized meetings and practical experiences which will be not only exchanged in conferences, but also in the field with local experts.

(Foundation)

When you decide to have a baby, you usually experience a whole set of feelings, including joy, hope,anxiety, doubt and so on.
This was also the case for AROME. We wished to implement and activate our plan, but very soon many issues arose. How to conciliate the specificities of each community, between private, public and academic parties? How to choose representatives? How to reach people, and moreover, how to
convince them to adopt the concept?...

When you decide to have a baby, you think of offering it, right from its birth, a home, a house with strong foundations!!! As for AROME, it soon became obvious to us that we should start with a goodbasis by creating what we called the PLATFORM…. For which you are here today! Through many questions you’ve been asked, the aim is to take a photograph at a given time of our countries’ situation.

The questions which appeared relevant to us to form this inventory were:

-What is the pattern of epidemiology of cancer in your specific country / region?
-Who are the specialists (in cancer epidemiology and cancer care)?
-What are the inventories, structures of care, training and research activities?

Do we apply a different strategy for the same disease? If Yes, why? Is it due to the molecule availability, or technology?… .and so on.

By answering these questions, not only will we get to know each other, but we will also create a common database on which we shall base our exchanges taking into account the specificities of each committee. To create this PLATFORM, we’ve chosen this symbolic site: Naples… symbolic in many
points of view: history, exchange of cultures, symbol of the Mediterranean characteristic, where pride and challenges are a tradition ! !

After the platform, the other mainstay of our foundation is to structure an efficient network of experts ready to cooperate on practical training programs in the various fields of oncology expertise. Our mission shall thus be to coordinate and ensure scientific events during AROME’s workshops at conferences, but also to support the launch of new surgical, radiotherapy, and bractherapy techniques, and to welcome and train staff in new therapeutic methods in oncology…

(Creation)

In your child’s life, you definitely have time references… his birthday, his first steps, his first tooth, his first degree, his first job, his wedding day… .and his first child… ..This shall be the same for AROME!!! each one of us shall remember all these dates.

The association was officially created on 15 July 2006 after publication in the OJ.

We took our first steps on a day last December… in San Antonio where we organized our first board meeting. We set up a strategic scheme of actions. Firstly, it seemed obvious to organize these 3 days so as to see each other, get to know each other and exchange ideas on our differences in epidemio-logy, practical expectations and limits in terms of means… .

Indeed, the means! The theme of tomorrow was chosen in this path. It is essential not only to base our platform on epidemiologic registries, but also to invite and involve industrial partners with whom we discuss everyday our development and research projects. The aim of involving these industrialists is to
give us an idea of the development prospects in our countries. It is obvious that this kind of strategy differs according to various parameters… and it is definitely not easy to adopt the same strategy in our countries without taking into account our specificities or differences… However, AROME is interested
by these angles since our association strongly aims at focusing its project on all actions which might reduce these differences to offer the best management to our patients, to improve the level of medicine by exchanging experience and to advance cancer care in places where others cannot overcome
distance, and even sometimes… ..prejudice, false beliefs and fatalism.

To these meetings, we have also invited institutional members and administrators who have been in the field of cancer care for many years , and who have helped to develop and improve the management of patients, together with doctors and other staff, as well as training doctors and nursing staff… for example - IAEA, NCI, MECC and soon IPEMED and other federal structures which act in their countries to improve and harmonize cancer practice and research, and also try to communicate their
experience in other countries … for instance, the French National Cancer Institute.

With all these partners, we will discuss tomorrow applications for support and strategy. We will identify, together with them, the main points to be considered at the creation of such programs, and we will also emphasize specific plans that AROME should develop and which should aim at a specific end.

(Action)

My dear friends, you will understand that you are the spearheads of AROME. AROME must belong to all of us and you all belong to AROME. We must promote and represent AROME at home, within our scientific committees, so that our association can really exist and have an undisputed legitimacy. With our differences, specificities, and skills, I invite you to play the same symphony to make AROME an essential partner for all our local institutions. Our symphony’s sounds shall be training, support, practice in the field, cooperation between centres and sponsorship of the young generation. With so many ideas and missions to carry out, let me tell you why I believe in it and why I am so sure that we will be successful in this project. Simply because we are all deeply rooted around the Mediterranean sea of which we are integral part forever and from which we get our pride.

We don’t need to proclaim our pride of belonging to this part of the world; it can be read in our eyes and seen in the acts of love we prove everyday to our countries, families and patients …

With simple principles based on trust, with actors aware of the importance of their role and missions, with realistic and feasible schemes and a synchronization of efforts fairly spread at the right place and at the right time, AROME cannot but develop and shine, be sure of it! Needless to say, that I have been sure of it since 15 July 2006! !

Welcome to AROME

Thank you very much.

Yazid

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