24th October saw the first of a proposed series of Joint Action CHRODIS (chronic diseases and promoting healthy ageing across the lifecycle) Stakeholder Forums held in Madrid, at the Institut of Health Carlos III who are the Joint Action leaders.  The Platform for Better Oral Health in Europe is a Collaborating Partner on two of the Joint Action work packages and was represented at the Stakeholder Forum by Nigel Carter of the European Dental Health Foundation.    The event was attended by some 50 stakeholders.  The day consisted of an opening plenary addressed by the Deputy Director of Health Promotion of the Spanish Ministry of Health and representatives from DG Sanco and Dr Juan Riese the JA-CHRODIS Co-ordinator.  This was followed by a presentation on the European Initiative Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing.

The main part of the day was taken up with workshop sessions at which the leads of the 7 work packages described their work programmes to date and sought feedback from the attendees.  The seven work packages are three horizontal work packages on Co-ordination, Dissemination and Evaluation, and further work packages on Platform of Knowledge Exchange, Health Promotion, Multimorbidity and Diabetes, a case study on diabetes type 2.

It is clear that whilst much has been done in the first few months of the programme to establish the requirements of the work there remains much work to be undertaken and more active involvement of the various stakeholders and partners is needed to ensure a successful and useful outcome.

The closing plenary addressed feedback from the group, conclusions and next steps and the meeting was closed by Albrecht Werner the DG Sanco responsible Officer who encouraged all to greater participation.