Celebrating the foundation of Young SIOPE, a new formal group within SIOP-Europe (SIOPE) for junior clinicians and researchers involved in childhood cancer
Dear readers, for this week's post, it is my great pleasure to introduce Roelof van Ewijk, a Dutch Clinical
Research Fellow in Paediatric Oncology working at the Princess Máxima Centre
for paediatric oncology. He will be telling us about the foundation
of Young SIOPE, a new formal group
within SIOP-Europe (SIOPE) for junior clinicians and researchers involved in childhood
cancer (Young professionals). Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
Thank you to SIOP and SIOP YI-NET for the opportunity
to write this blog post.
Young SIOPE – Early-involvement for future leaders in childhood cancer
SIOPE, the pan-European organisation representing professionals working in the field of childhood cancer, has made major progress in the past decades building European collaboration. A major achievement has been the development of the SIOPE Strategic Plan. However, there was no active programme involving young upcoming professionals in to these pan-European developments.
Over the last year, an active engagement of young professionals was initiated and supported by SIOPE, driven by Reineke Schoot. Early-career professionals from over 10 European countries are currently working on the foundation of Young SIOPE.
Our vision: Involvement of young professionals is crucial. The young professionals of today will become the future leaders in Paediatric Oncology. Early-stage involvement will lead to understanding where and why choices are made. Moreover, as young professionals we want to cooperate, ask questions and be involved, so we can contribute improving research – and clinical treatment strategies. We are convinced we can bring positive skills, like an out-of-the-box thinking approach, to the table. We hope to be able to facilitate involvement and exchange in clinical, research, and educational activities as well as to become an energetic force and platform for new ideas in the field of Paediatric Oncology.
Our progress: With great enthusiasm we initiated our currently growing group of Young SIOPE members. At the start we conducted a pan-European survey about how to address the needs of young professionals. There were 221 young,[“young” defined as in the beginning of his/her career in Paediatric oncology] respondents, including junior doctors, registrars and postdocs with careers in Paediatric and Adult Oncology, Radiotherapy, Radiology, Surgery, Translational / Clinical Research, Pathology and more.
Their responses inspired us to promote involvement of junior faculty in tumour groups and to organise (joint) sessions at the annual SIOPE meeting in Prague. We are planning a joint session with the SIOPE - Tumour Group chairs / members to discuss Young SIOPE involvement, as well as educational sessions with ECHO (European Consortium for Histiocytoses) and PanCare (Pan-European network for survivors after childhood and adolescent cancer) to learn and discuss.
The highlight for our group will be the official launch of the Young SIOPE group at the Annual Meeting . To become a closer community we are organising a networking dinner, open to all Young (feeling) professionals, which will be held on a boat with a beautiful view on the Prague river, Wednesday 23rd of May (registration still possible, guys!!!).
Our future: We believe that becoming a community as young professionals will lead to extensive collaboration in the future, facilitating talent’s early involvement. Creating an open community, enthusiastic to collaborate in research and clinically, will hopefully help reduce inequality in childhood cancer care across Europe , by promoting cross-border care and exchange of international expertise. We look forward to extend our work within Europe, as well to collaborate with other groups of young professionals in the future.
Interested to join? Contact us at edu@siope.eu!
Twitter: #youngsiope
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