Cardiovascular Policy in Europe—Principles

Friday, 14 November 2008 06:16

As seen in the ‘Policy Spotlight' pages, there is a clear call across Europe for action on cardiovascular disease:

• The European Parliament, through its 2007 Resolution, encourages governments in the EU to act to fight against CVD, such as through “including standard guidelines for best practice to identify high-risk individuals.”
• European citizens, patients and doctors are invited to use the Heart Health Charter—developed and launched with the support of the World Health Organisation, the European Commission, together with the European Society of Cardiology, the European Heart Network and their country affiliates—in order to push for priority to be given to action on CVD.
• From a medical perspective, the European Society of Cardiology's 2007 Prevention Guidelines aim to provide doctors with advice and tools to help improve CVD prevention and risk assessment.

These actions now need to be supported by authorities across Europe, such as those responsible for national health care policies and budget setting. Their actions will build on the foundations already made in tackling cardiovascular disease.

We have set out below some key policy principles for appropriate cardiovascular health management, including appropriate prevention, screening, treatments and therapies. Policies from governments should:

• Aim for realistic targets for individual patients' health, rather than total population-based standards.
• Manage and treat patients as unique individuals rather than as statistics, averages, or demographic groups.
• Respect the professional judgment of the physician, who, partnering with the patient, knows what best fits the patient's history and medical needs.
• Be regularly reviewed in order to modify or reverse earlier decisions that conflict with the best interests of patients.
• Ensure that short-term cost savings do not come at the cost of long-term chronic disease or extended and costly treatment and hospitalization.
• Encourage those in charge of health budgets to advance treatment that is best for the patient, particularly in the critical area of cardiovascular disease.
• Aim to invest in primary and secondary prevention, which has a clear effect on decreasing mortality and the economic burden of CVD on European society.

If you agree with the principles laid out above, please let us know by clicking "I AGREE" below and entering your information in the new window that appears.

I AGREE

To leave a comment about what you've just read, please enter your information below and click "send". If you wish to receive an email when you comment is posted, please choose "notify" in the drop-down menu.

Comments

Add New

second point is wrong susana sans 2008-12-16 05:35:37 I will sign that I agree with your principles when you delete the second which says Manage and treat patients as unique individuals rather than as statistics, averages, or demographic groups. I think whoever wrote this has a total confusion, and is detrimental to the outstanding work of epidemiological science that deals with groups and populations Yours sincerely Susana sans

Answer to your comments www.healtheurope.org 2009-02-21 09:36:00 I am convinced that the second principle is not against the outstanding work of epidemiological science that deals with groups and populations. The tremendous increase in knowledge in medicine and in its approach to diagnosis, prevention and treatment is based on the evidence of data that assist researchers and clinicians in their approach to the individual patients. Epidemiology is indeed one of the more consolidated scientific component of the medical science. No doubt. I would like to interpret the principle together with other principles: it seems to me it is a warning against the blinded use of data, accurate and reliable data, from group and population studies, and an invitation to transfer epidemiological tools to the context of the individual. The comment of Susana Sans is of great help to better commit ourselves in the difficult translation from basic and clinical research to the complex reality of an application for the single patient. The expertise of Dr. Sans in this field could well contribute to the site.

CVD policies William E. Feeman, Jr,MD 2009-02-27 18:14:42 The second principal is sound and in fact brilliant in perception and application. Individals have atherothrombotic disease (ATD) events, not statistical averages. I will be exhibiting the individual approach at the International Atherosclerosis Society symposium in Boston in June, 2008, and I invite any interested parties to drop by the exhibition. A brief summary can be found in the August 4th 2008 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, in the Readers' Comments section. A more detailed reference is the December, 2000, issue to the Journal of Cardiovascular Risk. I can send you this by e-mail. W.E. Feeman, Jr, MD

Individual and Population Aproaches are Necessary. Dr Ram B Singh,MD 2009-04-23 11:25:55 Dear friends, There is a need to have both approach es: population approach may not be adequate for a high risk patient who is likly to develop a cardiovascular event in next few hours or few days. We need to have population based approach for risk patients if we can buy few weeks by intervention and aggressive drug therapy by an individual approach. Unfortunately most physicians do not know that preventive measures like antiinflammatry foods and cessation of tobacco can act as intervention agent within few days and should be combined in the individual patient care. 1. Singh RB, De Meester F, Pella D, Basu TK, Watson R. Globalization of Dietary Wild Foods Protect against Cardiovascular Disease and all Cause Mortalities? A Scientific Statement from the International College of Cardiology, Columbus Paradigm Institute and the International College of Nutrition. The Open Nutraceuticals Journal, 2009, 2, 42-45. 2. Singh RB, Pella D, DeMeester F..What to eat and chew in acute myocardial infarction. Eur Heart J 2006, 27:1628-29.

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."