AEMH has been concerned with the issue of Clinical Leadership for many years.

In AEMH’s Conference 2006 in Bratislava “Hospital Management based on Quality and Safety” one of the main topics discussed was “Implication of Doctors in Management” and the 2007 AEMH statement clearly highlighted its relevance in the chapter “Larger involvement of Doctors in Hospital Management”.

The AEMH Conferences of Lisbon 2010 “Doctors Involvement in Hospital Management”, Vienna 2015 “Clinical Leadership” and Oslo 2019 “Clinical Leadership – a European Project” demonstrates how AEMH is committed in developing Clinical Leadership in European countries.

In 2016 the Board of AEMH (João de Deus, Vlad Tică, Pierre-François Cuénoud, Theo Merholz, Hrvoje Sobat) proposed to the General Assembly the creation of a Working Group on Clinical Leadership and this was really the first step to implement EACL project.

EACL development since that day has gone through several steps.

To implement European Training Requirements (ETR) several meetings, since 2017, took place between AEMH Board and UEMS Executive Committee, which culminated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations.

The working group was expanded to include representatives from European Medical Organizations, Universities and external experts and the final composition being distributed as follows: 2 members of AEMH, 2 members of UEMS, 1 member of FEMS, 1 member of EJD (appointed by the organizations), 1 member of the University and 2 external experts. This group will constitute the future board of EACL.This WG established the ETRs (European Training Requirements), regulations, assessment and rules of procedure of the Academy providing the ways of physicians to become Fellows and Masters.

Senior doctors with experience in Clinical Leadership can become Fellows of the Academy and Junior doctors can become Masters. These two different pathways to be member of EACL are well established in the ETRs.

After the work was completed, the project was launched on September 17th, 2021, in a webinar with more than 100 participants.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first exams will only take place in May 2022. But this pandemic situation has, in turn, unequivocally demonstrated the importance of clinical leadership in all European countries.