In the European Union, a disease is considered rare when it affects less than 1 in 2000 people (https://www.eurordis.org/about-rare-diseases ). Patients with rare diseases often encounter difficulties in reaching a correct diagnosis and in obtaining specialized, multidisciplinary treatment by trained physicians.
For these reasons, centers of reference and expertise for rare diseases were created. Centers of reference aim to address the needs of patients for correct diagnosis, specialized, multidisciplinary, personalized management and access to innovative treatments. The approval of a hospital or a clinical department as a center of reference and expertise for rare diseases is performed by the health authorities of every country, under strict conditions.
As of April 2019, the 1st Department of Neurology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Eginitio Hospital is approved as a National Center of Reference and Expertise for:
Evaluation of patients suffering from a rare neurological disease is usually performed in the Specialized Outpatient Clinics of the 1st Department of Neurology.