Brussels, 18/11/2024 – EACH event
At present, more than 60 million people in the EU live with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which remain the main cause of death and disability in Europe, accounting for over €282 billion in healthcare expenditure in the EU every year. The upcoming Council Conclusions on cardiovascular health (CVH) that the Hungarian Presidency is working on, along with the inclusion of CVD in both the European Commission President’s political guidelines and the Mission Letter to the Commissioner-Designate for Health signal a much welcome political commitment towards improving cardiovascular health (CVH) in Europe.
Building on this momentum, this event aimed to provide a platform for discussion between EU and national-level stakeholders to explore ways to address CVH in Europe, reduce mortality and morbidity, and improve the quality of life of people living with or at risk of CVD.
This event explored how to best focus EU-level action towards the unmet needs of the cardiovascular community and ensure that the new EU mandate puts forward the right tools to support the communities and the Member States in promoting CVH. The event also saw the participation of representatives of the national Health Ministries, to draw on national best practices and on the learnings of countries that have recently developed national cardiovascular health plans or other strategies to tackle CVD.
The event was moderated by Prof. Michal Vrablik, Professor of Internal Medicine at Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic.
Agenda
Opening remarks
- Victoria Tzouma, Co-Chair EFPIA Cardiovascular Health Platform
- Csaba Kontor, Health Attaché, Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU
Interview with the Rijken Family
- Marc, Manon, and their three daughters Beau, Arwen and India bring a poignant perspective as they share their collective experience with elevated Lp(a), a familial lipid disorder that significantly increases the risk of CVD.
Panel 1
- Ruth Biller, Chair of the European Patient Advocacy Group of ERN GUARD-Heart, the European Reference Network for rare heart diseases
- Prof. Cecilia Linde, Cardiologist, President-Elect of the European Society of Cardiology
- Prof. Raymond Vanholder, President of the European Kidney Health Alliance
- MEP Vytenis Andriukaitis (S&D, Lithuania)
Panel 2
- Václav Pláteník, Deputy Minister of Health, Czechia
- Michael Brinkmeier, Chairman, Stiftung Deutsche Schlaganfall-Hilfe (German Stroke Foundation)
- Konrad Korbiński, Director, Department of Coordinated Care, Ministry of Health, Poland
Closing remarks and networking reception
