On September 26, Tervisekassa (the Estonian Health Insurance Fund), the National Health Service of the Republic of Latvia, and the European Commission collaboratively organized a workshop in Valga, Estonia

It is a part of a series of 10 workshops at national level with a primary goal to raise awareness about patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.

The workshop was addressed to a wide audience including healthcare authorities and professionals, health insurance and administration members as well as patient organisations. One of the sessions was dedicated to European Reference Networks as a success story of cross-border healthcare implementation.

ERN BoMS representatives from Lithuania and Latvia, assoc. prof. Birute Tumiene and assoc. prof. Madara Auzenbaha gave a presentation entitled «Participation of Baltic states in ERNs: an added value of European collaboration and further prospects» and discussed long-term Baltic collaborations, national RD policies and establishment of rare disease Centers of Excellence as prerequisites to enter ERNs, successful participation in ERNs, remaining challenges and case examples on how to solve them, and the future prospects. Prof. Katrin Õunap presented the activities of the competence Center of Rare Diseases in Estonia and cross border consultation.

• Programme