Brussels 14 March 2024: The European Alliance for Cardiovascular Health (EACH) welcomes the recent announcement by the European People’s Party to include a ‘European Cardiovascular Health Plan’ as a core component of their electoral manifesto.
“We are launching a European Cardiovascular Health Plan because we know that cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the EU. This plan should include a European Knowledge Centre and promote a joint cardiovascular and diabetes health check.” European People’s Party (EPP) Manifesto full version can be found here.
This historic step answers the urgent need for comprehensive action to address Europe’s health crisis and tackle its leading cause of death – cardiovascular disease which costs the EU €282 billion every year. The long-term mission to achieve a healthier Europe was the reason why the European Alliance for Cardiovascular Health (EACH) was created in 2021 as a coalition of patients, healthcare professionals, researchers, and health industry representatives.
The inclusion of cardiovascular health in the EU electoral manifesto comes after two years of effort by EACH partners to advocate for a comprehensive EU policy response. In December 2023, the EACH exhibition Vote Cardiovascular Health 2024 took place in the European Parliament. The exhibition showcased the burden of cardiovascular diseases in figures per each EU Member States. The very urgent public topic, advocacy efforts on the national level as well as the engaging and innovative format of the event attracted over 100 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from 20 countries, who pledged action at both the EU and national level.
Emma Print (FH Europe Foundation) conducting a video interview with Ulrich Janßen, a patient representative from Germany.
MEP Łukacijewska, Co-host of the event, signing the Pledge wall.
Marc Rijken together with his wife Manon and daughter India, delivered a powerful and a very emotive closing speech along with three other fellow patients at the Opening Ceremony.
The EACH Cardiovascular Health Plan for Europe was launched in May 2022. Its key goals are to:
To achieve this, the focus will need to be on primary prevention at the population level, improvements in secondary prevention through timely detection, equal access to high-quality patient-centred healthcare, and increased uptake of rehabilitation.
More specifically, EPP calls for the European Knowledge Centre and European Cardiovascular Health Check as an integral part of the EACH proposed Vision.
A European Cardiovascular Health Data Knowledge initiative aligns with the European Health Data Space to establish a unified system for cardiovascular data. By integrating various sources of information, including registries and patient-generated data, this effort aims to enhance connectivity, promote collaboration across borders, and facilitate research and innovation in cardiovascular health. Similarly implementing European Cardiovascular Health Checks for common risk factors (including among several biomarkers LDL cholesterol and elevated Lp(a)), and with due consideration to gender differences, can help diagnose early, prevent disease, promote cardiovascular health (CVH), and save healthcare costs.
EACH believes that a dedicated Cardiovascular Health Plan that covers the full spectrum of cardiovascular health during a person’s entire life, can alleviate the burden of CVD on millions of people. It will also benefit societies and economies and will have a trickle-down effect engaging the whole cardiovascular health community with the creation of national CVH plans that are tailored to national contexts and needs.
“In addition to awakening the political will to tackle this serious health challenge, we need a paradigm shift in how the stakeholders are currently engaging. All stakeholders need to engage (...) to tackle cardiovascular health (...) in ways they have never done before.” EACH Patient Representative.