Active Patient Involvement in Research Continues with iCAN

iCAN’s Patient and Citizen Engagement Advisory Board (POTKU) convened for its second regular meeting on Friday, August 28th.

Patient involvement and patient organizations are pivotal to the iCAN flagship. The goal is to actively involve patients in the design of the subprojects and development of activities. In pursuit of this objective, iCAN established a Patient and Citizen Advisory Board, which commenced its work in spring 2020.

The Advisory Board’s role is to enhance patient and citizen involvement in the iCAN flagship and its research projects, to generate ideas and devise strategies for involvement, to serve as a liaison between patient citizens, researchers, and other stakeholders, and to propose specific actions to promote involvement.

During the second meeting, the group discussed current funding applications to the Academy of Finland and the significance of national collaboration in the realm of precision medicine research. The members of POTKU emphasize the importance of equality and heightened collaboration among regional entities. The meeting also addressed the impact of the launch of the Finnish Cancer Centre (FICAN) on both patients and research collaboration.