On 25 June 2020, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Heart Network (EHN) launched “Fighting cardiovascular disease – a blueprint for EU action”, in a virtual meeting attended by the European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and Members of the European Parliament.

Substantial progress in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease has resulted in the dramatic decline in premature death from CVD over the last 50 years. This may have led to false optimism that CVD need no longer be a public health priority. However, this is not the case. In the European Union, the burden of CVD remains greater than that of any other disease. Cardiovascular events remain, by far, the leading cause of death in the EU. In addition, millions of people now live with, and in the aftermath of, CVD. The call for bold and urgent action by the EU to address the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is even more pressing in the context of COVID-19. 

The development of innovative solutions to ensure people’s access to prevention and treatment of CVD across Europe is a necessary and urgent priority. Supporting research in CVD by creating a European-wide infrastructure to enable quality of care assessment, harmonised high-quality disease registries, and streamlined pragmatic randomised clinical trials will not only improve the health of people living in Europe, but stimulate the pharmaceutical and device industry to invest in Europe.

Fighting cardiovascular disease – a blueprint for EU action” provides a range of actions to address the increasing burden of CVD and improve the care and treatment for patients, by putting in place a programme spanning across policy, research and regulation.

This paper provides a blueprint for addressing the huge burden of CVD among the EU population, by putting forward specific recommendations for an ambitious EU action plan that addresses cardiovascular health to be implemented in the current EU mandate.

For more: https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Advocacy/fighting-cardiovascular-disease-a-blueprint-for-eu-action

Consult the Blueprint by clicking here.