EUPATI Training Portfolio

Jan Geissler is the founder and CEO of Patvocates, a think tank and consultancy on patient advocacy and patient engagement in research. He was the Director of the European Patients Academy (EUPATI) from 2012-2017 and still leads the German EUPATI Platform. Jan is a work package leader of the IMI2-funded EU project HARMONY on big data for better outcomes in hematology. A leukemia survivor since 2001, Jan co-founded the patient organisations LeukaNET/Leukaemie-Online.de in 2002, the European Cancer Patient Coalition in 2003, the CML Advocates Network in 2007, the Leukemia Patient Advocates Foundation in 2011, the Workgroup of European Cancer Patient Advocacy Networks (WECAN) in 2015 and the Acute Leukemia Advocates Network in 2016. Jan represents patients on a number of advisory boards and committees, e.g. European Cancer Organisation, EHA, ISPOR, Berlin Institute of Health, EuroBloodNET, International CML Foundation, the EU Cancer Mission Assembly, the German National Decade Against Cancer and the Ethics Committee of the Bavarian Chamber of Physicians.

Inês Alves has a degree in veterinary medicine, post-graduated in surgery and 2 years of Ph.D. studies in veterinary sciences. She is a EUPATI Fellow, member of the EUPATI Faculty and the vice-president of EUPATI National Platform in Portugal. She is also the creator of Beyond Achondroplasia in 2013, founder and president of ANDO Portugal, the Skeletal Dysplasia National Association, a patient representative at ERN BOND, the European Reference Network for Rare Bone disorders, and member of the Steering committee. Her other roles include Deputy at Technology and Care Integration Committee of the Health Parliament Portugal,  Co-chair of Patient Outcomes for EuRR-Bone, the European Registry for rare bone and mineral disorders, Patient expert for EMA and IMI; EURORDIS volunteer evaluator in European Joint Program for rare diseases, EJP RD, and member in the E-rare and Rare 2030 expert panel, Member of the management committee and communication co-leader of COST action Gemstone, Genomics of musculoskeletal traits,  Founder and chair of the European Rare Bone Forum (ERFB).

Ingrid Klingmann is a physician specialised in General Medicine, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Medicine with over 30 years of experience in different senior medical, operational and managerial functions in pharmaceutical industry, CROs and clinical trial sites with focus on clinical trial design and management, ethical and regulatory aspects. Since January 2003 she has her own pharmaceutical development and site management support consulting company. Ingrid is Chairman of the Board of the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP). On behalf of EFGCP she was and is involved in different FP7- and IMI-funded projects (ICREL, PatientPartner, PharmaTrain, EUPATI, Combacte-Magnet) and with her company in the FP7-funded paediatric LENA project and the IMI-project SPRINTT. Her broad professional background as physician with experience in patient care, clinical development, site management and patient engagement enables her to bridge the gaps between the interests and skills of all different stakeholders in medicines development with the aim to develop new patient-relevant treatments more efficiently.

Wolf See received his MA in Psychology from University of California in 1970; MSc (Diplombiologe) in 1972, PhD (Dr. rer.nat.) 1976, DSc (Privatdozent – Physiology) 1984 and full Prof. of Physiology (apl.) 1992 from Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) in Germany. From 1984 to 1991 he was Visiting Asst. Prof. of Physiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), New York, and since 1992 he is Visiting Prof. of Physiology at AECOM. He joined pharmaceutical industry in 1988 and held various senior positions in clinical research (CNS), clinical operations, and from 1996 until 2005 in regulatory affairs and labelling. During his time in industry he continued his basic research in neural regulation of respiration at AECOM and teaching medical and psychology students at RUB. Since his retirement from industry in 2005 he works as independent consultant, currently for BAYER in the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Education and Training (E&T) projects as work package leader and co-leader. He is a member of the EUPATI Course Committee and Faculty, and continues to support content development and transformation of the Patient Expert Training Programme into an on-demand format in an EIT-health project; he is also member of the EUPATI Editorial Board, and the German EUPATI National Platform (ENP Germany).

Tamás Bereczky has been active in EUPATI since 2014, leading the development of training and content of EUPATI (until April 2020). He holds a PhD in Social Psychology and has extensive expertise in training and educational methods, practical training and research methodology.

Originally a linguist and psychologist, Tamás has a PhD on the significance and perspectives of patient organizations in Europe. In addition to his work as a psychodrama practitioner, he also works as an advisor to EACS, UNAIDS and ECDC in matters concerning HIV, HCV, men having sex with men, substance use, and health policy. He has been active in the AIDS Treatment Group and the European Commission’s Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS between 2013 and 2015. 

Jana Popova is the EUPATI Patient Engagement Training Coordinator. She is in charge of managing and implementing EUPATI’s patient engagement trainings, EUPATI Fundamentals and EUPATI Essentials, and to develop the in-house trainings.

Jana is engaged in establishing collaborations with third parties to increase the scope of EUPATI’s trainings for professionals, academia and industry. She has been active as a patient advocate since 2006, coming from the rare diseases field and she has been passionate in presenting patients’ perspective. She also has a PhD in media and digital communications and has extensive experience in patient engagement and training methods.