Patients’ Experience of the EHS Congress

Reflections on the participation in the EHS Congress, by Paula Goss, UK, member of the EHS Patient Advisory Board
I was invited to attend the recent EHS conference in Prague in May 2024. This is my second conference invited as a patient to attend and present from the patient’s perspective. I did a presentation on hernia guidance and why it should include patients’ voices front and center in its creation. This was very well received by all the delegates. I also sat on the panel to discuss patient vs. mesh interaction (autoimmunity) this was a really important discussion, rich in opinions, and again valued by all the delegates. It was a very positive experience and I cannot thank the EHS enough for their invite and inclusion of patients.
Paula Goss, member of the EHS Patient Advisory Board

Reflections on the participation in the EHS Congress, by Irena Hrabincová, Czech Republic, member of the EHS Patient Advisory Board
The EHS Conference 2024, held in Prague and titled ¨Out of the Box´, was remarkable in giving voice and platform to representatives of hernia patients. Jackie Bullock, Paula Goss and myself were present and used the opportunity to communicate matters and questions important to patients to the participating doctors and industry representatives. The organisers made a point of involving patient representatives in many, if not most, sessions, thus integrating their experience with the discussion taking place. My presentation on the topic of ¨What patients need from their doctors¨ took place in the session ¨Enhancing patient- centred care in hernia surgery” on the first day of the conference, alongside presentations from doctors and researchers focusing on improving patient care and measuring patient satisfaction. The audience showed, in the subsequent panel discussion, a keen interest in finding ways to assess and improve hernia care outcomes and patient satisfaction. It was heartening to see the growing interest in the patients´ perspective in what is clearly a dynamic and growing field of medicine. At the same time, there is much work to be done in integrating the patients´ perspective in the process of treatment and care, as it is not, at the moment, an industry-wide standard. I believe that the European Hernia Society is doing vital work in fostering patient-centred care and developing the dialogue between medical professionals, so it may become, in the future, a standard, universally applied practice.
Irena Hrabincová, Dipl.Arch, member of the EHS Patient Advisory Board