European Iniciative in the Field of Rare Diseases[Evropská iniciativa v oblasti vzácných onemocnění]

Common European strategy in the field of rare disease may be considered as a model example of European integration. Rare diseases, for which extremely low number of patients per diagnose is typical, are characteristic with relatively high level of fragmentation and inefficiency of treatment and from that arising high costs. The process of integration incorporates all EU member countries and its aim is not only to decrease the cost of rare disease treatments but also improvement of treatment accessibility and unification of the treatment procedures. Another important aspect of this process is encouragement of active participation of all stakeholders including often neglected patients in this process. This article reviews common European strategy in the field of rare disease and its implementation through the EUROPLAN project. In the second part the authors concentrate on the implementation of this policy in Czech Republic, with the focus on specific new aspects such as active involvement of the patient groups in implementation of the "National plan on rare disease" and its meaning for the improvement of rare disease treatment.