#CVHealthForAll – it’s part of the plan!
30 Aug 2024
ESC Advocacy Committee Co-Chairs, Professor Francesco Cosentino (Karolinska University Hospital - Stockholm, Sweden) and Professor Donna Fitzsimons (Queens University Belfast - Belfast, UK) explain why the ESC is pushing for coordinated EU and national cardiovascular health (CVH) plans and how you can join the cause:
“As healthcare professionals, we are well aware of the enormous impact that CVD has on the patients in our care and people all over the world. Indeed, there is a tsunami of CVD coming our way because of an ageing population, rising obesity, environmental factors and the limited investment in CV research and innovation. As we saw yesterday when new comprehensive data from the 2024 ESC Atlas of Cardiology1 were presented at the congress, CV statistics continue to be alarming and geographical, gender and generational inequalities remain huge. The cost to the economy – €282 billion in 2021 – is eyewatering.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, it seems that many of our policymakers have not fully considered the true clinical and economic consequences of CVD. The ESC, together with its partners in the European Alliance for Cardiovascular Health (EACH), has been pressing for CV health to be put on the political agenda in Europe and beyond. In particular, we have highlighted the urgent need for a coordinated European CVH plan, with clear deliverables and common targets. Such a framework, supported by national CVH plans, would ensure the needs of citizens are successfully met – in all areas, including primary and secondary prevention, diagnosis, more effective treatments and rehabilitation.
As part of this drive, the ESC welcomed an extremely productive collaboration with the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, including the first-ever high-level conference on CVH with more than 20 Ministries of Health, National Cardiac Societies and experts from the ESC in Budapest this July. The conference highlighted the current dire situation and focused on the solutions within a CVH plan that could empower stakeholders to make the most of opportunities to create a healthier future for all.
One such solution revolves around stopping people getting CVD in the first place. Just over 50% of CVDs could be prevented by lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and weight, by stopping smoking and by controlling diabetes; however, these risk factors are highly prevalent globally. An essential component of a CVH plan involves ensuring healthcare professionals are better able to support individuals to adopt a proactive approach to heart health and provide equitable processes for screening and diagnosis. Another important target is to tackle risk factors that individuals cannot control – like environmental pollution, genetic risks, mental health issues and poverty.
The ESC’s efforts to make an EU CVH plan a reality continued on 25 July when ESC President Franz Weidinger addressed EU health ministers at an informal high-level meeting. The invitation of a non-ministerial speaker to such an event is very unusual, highlighting the increasing significance of CV health across Europe, bringing us another step closer to #CVHealthForAll.
We encourage congress delegates to take their own proactive step and find out more about their CV risk by visiting the CV Health Check Pitstop for a finger-prick test of their lipids, lipoproteins [including lipoprotein(a)] and HbA1c levels. Here you can learn more about the value of quick-and-simple screening and what you can do to help implement better processes in your country. While you are there, learn more about your country’s CV data, sign the global petition and help raise awareness that we want #CVHealthForAll. The time for action is now!”
References
- Timmis A, et al. Eur Heart J. 2024. doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae466.
