Report of the First meeting of the European Burden of Disease Network (EBoDN)

20–21 September 2016, London, United Kingdom

The first meeting of the European Burden of Disease Network (EBoDN) was convened by the WHO Regional Office for Europe jointly with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and co-hosted by Public Health England on 20−21 September 2016 in London, United Kingdom. The EBoDN was born out of recommendations from the European Health Information Initiative (EHII) Steering Group in spring 2016. The goal of establishing this network is rooted in increasing the capacity of Member States in the WHO European Region to perform burden of disease (BoD) studies using harmonized methods, primarily with a view to increasing the comparability of studies across countries. The IHME, which is the coordinating institution for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study, is joint convener of the EBoDN and will contribute to activities and efforts to support the advancement of BoD capacity in the European Region. As an important first step, IHME and WHO will develop a national BoD manual, in which the EBoDN will contribute towards its scope and content. The vision, mission and aims of the network were formulated, and a series of activities were agreed upon for the upcoming year in a work plan.