The Final Conference, together with the Management Committee meeting and working group meetings for the COST Action CA16234: European Cleft and Craniofacial Initiative for Equality in Care (ECCE), have just been held at the Faculty of Medicine within the âCarol Davilaâ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania. This was preceded by a training school where more than 40 participants attended from over 30 partner countries.
The representatives from Malta are Prof Helen Grech from the Department of Communication Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Prof Jean Calleja-Agius from the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and Dr Gabriella Gatt from the Department of Child Dental Health & Orthodontics at the Faculty of Dentistry from the University of Malta. This COST Action brings together specialists in obstetrics, anatomy, speech therapy, psychology, dentistry, orthodontics, paediatric surgery and nursing in order to enhance the research related to cleft lip and palate and craniofacial anomalies.
Prof Helen Grech and Prof Jean Calleja-Agius attended the conference on the 18 and 19 March 2022. Prof Helen Grech delivered an oral presentation entitled: âPerceptions of healthcare professionals and parents regarding services offered to children with clefts in Maltaâ. This was based on the research work conducted as part of a related another ongoing Erasmus plus project on Speech, Communication and Resilience: SCR4Cleft. Prof Jean Calleja-Agius highlighted the challenges of conducting research and looking after patients affected by rare conditions, during her lecture entitled âThe Importance of Being Rareâ.
In this oral presentation, parallels were drawn between this particular COST Action focusing on patients with cleft lips and craniofacial anomalies and the COST Action CA18117 Gynocare, which Prof Calleja-Agius herself is currently chairing and which specifically deals with patients with rare gynaecological cancers. This was followed by another presentation by Prof Jean Calleja-Agius on: âAccess to cleft and craniofacial care in Europe: A challengeâ, based on the outcomes of the working groups of the ECCE COST Action.
