A National Reference Center in France : CRACMO
31 August 2020
CRACMO is the French Reference Center for Congenital Esophageal abnormalities. It was founded in 2006 as part of the National Rare Disease Charter and is based in Lille University Hospital. This hospital has vast experience in surgery and multidisciplinary outpatient treatment of these patients. Our center was recently re-approved by the French Ministry of Health in 2017 and has the following goals to achieve :
- Promote and help epidemiological studies : a national database was created in 2008 to register all new living patients born with Esophageal Atresia in France and overseas territories (DOM-TOM) and to date, the database contains more than 1800 patients. this is the large register on EA today in the world.
- Promote and communicate the standard of care for Esophageal Atresia. This was done in 2008 and updated in 2018 as national diagnosis and treatment strategies in collaboration with the health ministry, family support-groups and the scientific establishment involved with the care of patients from antenatal until adulthood.
- Promote social support for patients and families. A website containing useful information and support has been set up : fimatho.fr/cracmo
- Promote research activities and continuous medical education. A French network associating all the centers taking care of patients with esophageal atresia has been created and several clinical research protocols are currently ongoing
- Be a direct partner of parent’s associations participating in joint initiatives (National protocols and diagnostic care, information booklets, calls for medical research or fundings)
Among its main achievements, CRACMO
- Answers and gives advice to hundreds of medical and families queries
- Organized the first international workshop which took place in Lille in 2010, followed by Montreal in 2012, Rotterdam in 2014, Sydney in 2016 and Rome in 2019
- Created a website (fimatho.fr/cracmo), where professionals and patients can find useful information and links, the site is hosted in the official website of the French network for rare digestive diseases FIMATHO (fimatho.fr)
Pr F Gottrand
CHU Lille, Univ. Lille, Infinite Inserm U1286, Lille, France
