Yesterday, February 20th, our very own Patient Ambassador and Community Engagement Manager, Emma Print represented the patients’ perspective on a multidisciplinary panel at a virtual event hosted by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
The virtual event highlighted the importance of having national cardiovascular plans that included secondary prevention measures. It featured insights from different stakeholders in the context of a recently published report by the London School of Economics (LSE), offering an invaluable opportunity to understand the practical applications of this research. The panellists included a patient, (Emma Print), a researcher (Panos Kanavos, Associate Professor of International Health Policy at the LSE), a politician (Tomislav Sokol, Member of the European Parliament, EPP Group, Croatia), and an industry representative (Haseeb Ahmad, President of Novartis Europe).
Cardiovascular disease remains the number 1 killer in Europe, costing the EU 282 billion euros per year. In addition to mortality, morbidity and cost, the experience of a heart attack or stroke can also have a profound and lasting impact on the quality of life of those affected, as well as their families or carers.
The report, commissioned by the EFPIA Cardiovascular Health Platform, demonstrates that if 70% of people living with cardiovascular disease could have their risk factors better managed, 1.2 million deaths in the EU could be averted over the next ten years. For example, reducing LDL-cholesterol levels by just 1 mmol/L has been shown to reduce all-cause mortality by 10%.
You can access the report here.
For the recording of the event please visit: https://efpia.eu/news-events/events/efpia-event/getting-to-the-heart-of-the-matter-improving-cardiovascular-health-in-europe/