As is universal across the world, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Ireland. Every year, nearly 9,000 people in Ireland lose their lives to CVD, yet an estimated 80% of premature heart attacks and strokes are preventable.
To address this situation, HPP has supported major CVD organisations in Ireland to call for a new national strategy built around the need for a prevention-oriented mindset. Earlier this year, we united leading Irish CVD stakeholders to develop the country’s first national position paper on cardiovascular disease prevention.
The position paper highlights the need for a new vision on prevention at all stages, from early risk factors to chronic and advanced disease, to drive a sustainable approach to this major area of societal burden, health inequalities and unmet need.
It was launched in Dublin by Hildegarde Naughton, Minister of State at the Department of Health, alongside a panel of leading CVD experts, including: Neil Johnson, Croí and National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health; Dr Angie Brown, Irish Heart Foundation; and Professor Ian Graham, National CVD Prevention Council.
As interest grows in revitalising cardiovascular care, we see an ever-growing need to bring the CVD community together to produce an action-oriented consensus with prevention as the core component across the CVD care continuum. It is not acceptable that CVD is the number one cause of death in Europe, claiming around four million lives in 2017 alone.
Find out more from senior stakeholders speaking to the timely intervention of this position paper and the potential for it to be applied in other countries.
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