Face2Face CILDAPANET Meeting

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Association held from 01-03 September, 2023 in Roslyn Central Park Hotel Sofia the First Annual Meeting of the project Central & Eastern European ILDs Patient Network – CILDAPANET (www.cildapanet.org).

Within two days, medical specialists from the country and abroad informed the Bulgarian and foreign participants – patients and their families, medical students from Medical University – Sofia, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry and other interested parties, about the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of both interstitial lung diseases such as lung cancer; on doctor-patient communication and patients’ quality of life after diagnosis, and on holistic approaches to addressing the burden of disease.

Representatives from international and national organizations supporting and protecting the rights of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (European Pulmonary Fibrosis Federation – EU – PFF, Polish Society for Supporting Patients with Pulmonary Fibrosis) and with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (Platform of Organizations of People with Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Southern Europe – AGORA ) shared the experience and importance of these organizations in dealing with daily difficulties and challenges of a medical, domestic, social and institutional nature, which patients and their families face during the long journey of the disease.

This international forum initiated the holding of regular annual information meetings of patient organizations, members of the Central & Eastern European ILDs Patient Network – CILDAPANET, with medical and other specialists from the country and abroad, with the aim of uniting efforts in the fight for a better life, awareness and well-being of patients with interstitial lung diseases.