European Critical Care Foundation

The European Critical Care Foundation is an independent foundation established to improve understanding of the organisation and delivery of critical care, raise awareness of factors that lead to unequal and inequitable outcomes, and trigger action in European institutions to overcome those barriers.
ECCF looks at particular critical situations and works by:
• Identifying, through evidence-based, multidisciplinary research, the non-medical factors that influence the delivery of care to critically ill patients. These may include physical and administrative infrastructures, institutions and economics, public attitudes and awareness.
• Developing recommendations in partnership with key stakeholders, which if implemented, would lead to improved outcomes for patients. These include best practice proposals, policy briefs, patient charters, media releases and opinion pieces in the quality press.

• Initiating targeted advocacy activities in the EU institutions, in collaboration with partners at both EU and national level to improve the delivery of care.

Since 2007, two projects have been started:

‘Improving Access to Primary Angioplasty’ looks into the structural factors that limit the delivery of primary angioplasty to treat acute heart attack patients in Europe and which therefore increase mortality and morbidity in those patients. These factors result in variations in outcomes across Europe, despite studies which indicate that this is a clinically-proven best treatment.

ECCF’s work on extremely pre-term births, entitled ‘Outcomes in the Eye of the Beholder’ looks at the factors limiting decision-making for extremely premature infants. Decision-making guidelines vary widely across Europe and may have very different consequences for the patient, their families and society. ECCF aims to highlight these disparities, and develop recommendations relating to neonatal policies and practices that better support decision-makers in these critical situations.

Looking ahead, ECCF plans to develop the portfolio of critical care issues that it addresses. Our planned areas of interest currently are autopsies and informed consent. We address them because they they are hidden problems, areas of medical and scientific practice that are misunderstood or neglected, for a variety of largely non-medical reasons ranging from financial and legal to cultural and ethical reasons. They merit out attention because they have the potential to bring significant improvements to patients, healthcare providers and other stakeholders through the application of our particular multi-disciplinary approach.

None declared

None declared

None declared

Ms Helen Brewer (Foundation Manager)

III - Non-governmental organisations

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