National EAT conference in Heidelberg on 24/25. October 2015

EAT group leaders from 18 medical schools in Germany had their first national conference in the history of EAT in the Thoraxklinik in Heidelberg.

Professor Anil Batra, MD attended the meeting as a guest speaker and talked about his lawsuit for financing of tobacco cessation medication in Germany.

The project founder of EAT, Titus J. Brinker discussed the following major points with the other group leaders:

1. Sustainable improvement of the teaching on smoking cessation in German medical schools.
2. Further implementation of the volunteering EAT groups into the curriculum of their medical schools to increase sustainability and to increase gratification of all participating medical students. So far, 8 medical schools in Germany have formal teaching courses for their medical students usually lead by the local EAT group leader who is in the position of a paid lecturer.
3. Improved qualification of the EAT group leaders by science-based train the trainer programs in April 2016 in Göttingen and increased funding for their work (the German Heart Foundation and the German Cancer Foundation are interested).
4. A stronger focus on advocacy and on the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by the WHO in Germany. Collaboration with the German Center for Cancer Research in Heidelberg which offered to educate all EAT group leaders in advocacy for free.
5. Long-term evaluation of EAT in a multi-centered randomized controlled trial.
6. Analysis of prospective data on our smoking cessation courses; discussion of the current status of the Smokerface Randomized Trial
7. Future options: Integrating Education Against Tobacco (German medical schools) into the German Heart Foundation or the German Cancer Foundation

Aside from productive discussions and the signing of declaration of intent to promote our future the grant proposals, networking and getting to know each other was a major aspect of our conference. In the evening of the first day, we visited the pubs in Heidelberg and on the next day a city tour was organized by the EAT group from Heidelberg.

Group pictures:

Selected images:

Medical schools and attending group leaders:

Berlin: Leonard Kozarzewski
Bochum: Sonja Wolff
Bonn: Janina Suhre
Duisburg-Essen: Otilia Negruta, Claudia Kurek
Düsseldorf: Jilada Wilhelm
Erlangen: Lava Taha, Robert Buslaff, Ramona Mittwollen
Frankfurt: Sarmin Ullah, Love-Preet Kaur
Freiburg: Katharina Sies, Hannah Maria Baumert, Lena Jakob, Anja Blum
Gießen: Titus J. Brinker, Felix J. Hofmann
Hannover: Marc Silchmüller, Findus Gellrich
Heidelberg: Ailís Haney, Caelán Haney, Samuel Schaible, Thien An Tran
Homburg: Carolin Rauter
Jena: Robert Spalthoff, Daniela Peters
Köln: Jonas Alfitian
München: Marlene Heckl
Münster: Hannah Röder, Maite Abrahams Hurtado
Regensburg: Tobias Stark
Tübingen: Ole Anhuef, Julia Harzheim

Thanks to the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) for the funding of the conference.