EAPE · OUR HISTORY
Across Europe.
Through generations.
The story of a shared commitment to paediatric education — from European dialogue in the 1950s to scientific exchange and digital learning.
EDUCATING TOGETHER SINCE
1970
ATHENS · EUROPE
A tradition of collaboration in paediatric education
A EUROPEAN COMMUNITY OF EDUCATORS
Better teaching.
Shared across borders.
The European Association for Paediatrics Education (EAPE) grew out of a conversation about how doctors learn to care for children. Its roots lie in post-war changes in medical education and in a wider understanding of paediatrics: learning not only in hospital wards and laboratories, but also in the communities where children grow up.
Educators across Europe recognised that different national approaches could become a source of shared learning. EAPE offered a setting in which teaching experience, educational questions and research could cross institutional and geographical boundaries.
This history follows documented milestones in that collaboration. It brings together the early account published by Euan M. Ross in 1980 with later conference, academic and professional records.
SELECTED MILESTONES
How the story unfolded
1955–56
A shared European question
A WHO-sponsored study visited 68 paediatric education centres in Western Europe. Differences in teaching approaches, resources and curriculum time encouraged educators to compare experience across national boundaries.
1965
Teaching methods take centre stage
A conference in the Netherlands brought educators from Eastern and Western Europe together to examine how paediatrics was taught. Participants saw the value of continuing these exchanges through regular meetings.
1969
From discussion to organisation
At a WHO-sponsored meeting in Malta in December, the formation of an independent association was proposed when continuing support for regular meetings could not be sustained.
1970
The association takes shape in Athens
Athens marked the beginning of EAPE as an organised European educational association. Its founding purposes were to improve paediatric education, share educational knowledge and promote research. Ross records an initial meeting in March; a contemporary journal announcement dates the formal foundation to 29 September.
1971–80
A forum for learning across Europe
Meetings moved between European centres and addressed the future of paediatrics, teacher development, assessment, ethics, communication and learning outside hospital. Small-group discussion and exchange between educators were central to the early approach.
1981
Lisbon: education and childhood disability
Lisbon hosted a meeting on preparing medical students for their future work with children with disabilities. It was part of the established meeting programme, following the association’s first decade.
1980s–90s
A widening educational agenda
Later meetings addressed clinical competence in Dundee (1984), adolescent medicine in Barcelona (1985), technology in London (1988) and nutrition in Istanbul (1989). Lisbon hosted a further meeting in 1994 on the care of migrant children in Europe.
1998
Bordeaux: a shared child-health perspective
A joint conference with the European Society for Social Paediatrics examined child public health and social and community paediatrics, including their place in medical education and training.
2009
EuroPed and the move towards online learning
At AMEE 2009, educators presented the developing EuroPed project: a European online approach to continuing paediatric education, using clinical cases and multilingual learning materials. The contemporary abstract describes a project in development, rather than a completed service.
2013–15
Education, inclusion and school health
Academic records document contributions to the association’s 2013 Bordeaux congress on teacher preparation and disability, followed by a 2015 Budapest meeting addressing school health and primary-school teachers.
2024
Scientific exchange through a web congress
The association’s web congress on human milk, nutrition and infant development took place on 3–4 October 2024. The programme linked paediatric education with research and multidisciplinary scientific exchange.
Explore the first decade: meeting themes, 1971–1980
- 1971 · ViennaThe future of paediatrics
- 1972 · Helleback, DenmarkPreparing future paediatricians
- 1973 · PragueAssessment and teaching other health professionals
- 1974 · GenevaTeaching about health challenges in developing countries
- 1975 · ParisMedical records and coordinated obstetric–paediatric teaching
- 1976 · LondonDevelopmental and psychosocial paediatrics
- 1977 · UppsalaTeaching paediatrics outside hospital
- 1978 · CracowCommunication in paediatric education
- 1979 · LeidenEthics education for undergraduate students
- 1980 · AthensTeacher development and educational research
Theme summaries follow Ross’s 1980 table; they describe historical meetings, not current programmes.
OUR MEETINGS ACROSS EUROPE
Different cities.
Shared educational questions.
From clinical assessment to communication, ethics and community care, EAPE’s meetings have brought educators together around the changing needs of children and families.
ISTANBUL · 1989
Nutrition in paediatrics
The Istanbul meeting forms part of a European tradition of exchanging ideas across institutions and national borders.
Meeting themes, 1981–1997
- 1981 · LisbonPreparing future doctors to care for children with disabilities
- 1982 · ZagrebPrimary care for preschool children: educational implications
- 1983 · ParisTeaching neonatology
- 1984 · DundeeAssessing clinical competence in paediatrics
- 1985 · BarcelonaTeaching adolescent medicine
- 1986 · RennesTeaching public health and social paediatrics
- 1987 · The HagueHealth and illness: educating children and parents
- 1988 · LondonNew technologies in paediatric education
- 1989 · IstanbulNutrition in paediatrics
- 1990 · PragueDeprivation in childhood: implications for paediatric education
- 1991 · ParisClinical decision-making in paediatrics
- 1992 · ThessalonikiChildren with chronic illness: educational perspectives
- 1993 · RomePreventing adult degenerative disease in childhood: educational perspectives
- 1994 · LisbonThe health of migrant children in Europe
- 1995 · St AndrewsLearning objectives for medical students entering the 21st century
- 1996 · BarcelonaBioethics in paediatrics: educational perspectives
- 1997 · BudapestContinuing paediatric education across Eastern and Western Europe
English summaries translated from the French-language annual meeting archive. The first decade, 1971–1980, appears above using Ross’s contemporary account. Where historical sources use different wording, the summaries retain the scope of each source.
THE FOUNDING PURPOSE
Three ideas at the heart of EAPE
Improve teaching
Encourage better approaches to teaching and learning in paediatrics, informed by the needs of children and the people who care for them.
Share experience
Collect and exchange educational knowledge, connecting paediatric educators across Europe.
Develop understanding
Promote educational research and dialogue with professional educators.
A CONTINUING THREAD
Methods change.
The educational question remains.
From early discussions of community-based teaching to later work on assessment, inclusion and online education, the documented history shows a recurring concern: how to help educators prepare doctors for the needs of children and families.
That history belongs to a European landscape of exchange — between countries, disciplines and generations of teachers.
HISTORICAL RECORD
Sources & further reading
This is a selection of documented milestones, rather than a complete annual record. Historical meeting details refer to their own period. EAPE is used consistently in the narrative; original publication titles retain their historical wording.
- AEEP/EAPE: annual scientific meetings, 1971–1997. French-language archive, posted 27 April 2010; source for the 1981–1997 meeting summaries.
- Ross EM. The Association for Pediatric Education in Europe. Medical Teacher. 1980;2(6):302–304.
- Association for Paediatric Education: contemporary foundation announcement. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 1971;46:228–229.
- Asociación Española de Pediatría. Libro blanco de las especialidades pediátricas. Madrid: Exlibris Ediciones; 2011. Annual congress chronology, Table II.
- Crouchman M, Pechevis M, Sandler B. Social paediatrics and child public health: a European perspective. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 2001;84:299–301. Account of the 1998 Bordeaux conference.
- AMEE 2009: EuroPed European Paediatric Online. Billeaud C, Perel Y, Saliba E. Abstract 2H3, p.S21.
- Université de Bordeaux, LACES: Éric Dugas. Conference contributions for Bordeaux 2013 and Budapest 2015.
- AFPA: Human Milk, Nutrition and Infant Development web congress. Replay announcement, 19 October 2024; supporting HAL/INRAE conference record.