Dear colleagues,
Welcome to this new edition of the E-P-A newsletter. As you know, this year we will renew our Bureau. According to our bylaws the representatives of every E-P-A National Section, forming the E-P-A council, will appoint a new Bureau (President, Treasurer, Secretary General and Secretary). If anyone is interested in being elected in the new E-P-A Bureau please make a step forward and contact our secretary Ruben van Zelm ruben.vzelm@qconsult.nl to propose his/her nomination.
It has been an honour and privilege to serve as President of the E-P-A during these years and lead such a productive and diverse group of healthcare and social workers, managers, professionals, academics and scientists who „actively support the development, implementation and evaluation of clinical / care pathways“. The robust discussions and debates during our conferences, courses and summer school is the hallmark of a strong and vigorous association. Hereby I want to thank the actual E-P-A Bureau represented by Dr. Kris Vanhaecht, Secretary General E-P-A, Prof. Dr. Walter Sermeus, Treasurer E-P-A and Mr Ruben Van Zelm, Secretary E-P-A and all those who have served our association for their work and initiative. I especially acknowledge Dr. Eva Biringer on behalf of the Colleagues of the Norwegian Section for her commitment in organizing the International course on „Care Pathways and organization of care processes“ and our office manager Ms. Alexandra Pardon who has worked closely with the Bureau during our service.
Thanks to the efforts of our Dutch and Belgian Colleagues we will have our European Care Pathway Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Thursday May 31st and Friday June 1st 2012. E-P-A members have been working tirelessly to ensure the success of the Conference presenting the results of their experiences and research. I am sure that the Conference will allow delegates to share knowledge, to network and to learn. The proceedings of the Conference will be published on the next issue of the International Journal of Care Pathways. Our website has a special section on this upcoming conference, so please look there for the latest information about timelines for last minute registration. I am also proud to announce that next year the E-P-A Conference will be held in March 2013 in Scotland, so a big thank you to our Scottish colleagues for their initiative.
I want also to invite you and your colleagues to the 4th International Summer School on Care Pathways and Organization of Care Processes that will be held at the beautiful Orta Lake in Italy. Based on the evaluation and the advice of all previous delegates we revised the 2012 content and timing. We are really looking forward to be back in Orta, share our knowledge on pathways and learn from your experiences. If you have further questions on this summer school, please do not hesitate to contact us via our office manager Ms. Pardon: Alexandra.Pardon@med.kuleuven.be
As always, I am pleased to remind those of you that could be interested in submitting papers to consider our Official Journal, the International Journal of Care Pathways (more information on: http://ijcp.rsmjournals.com/) and that the Newsletter welcomes announcements, news, and comments from the designated regional and group correspondents as well as other readers.

We look forward to hearing from you!
Massimiliano Panella
President European Pathway Association