Cardiovascular disease is Europes biggest killer, causing more than four million deaths per year, 1.5 million of which are in current EU Member States. Whilst the ESC works to set the standard on cardiovascular disease treatment, one of the biggest obstacles to European continuity has been the national variations in treatment, training, data collection and public health campaigns and lack of underlying European consensus. To tackle this, the ESC is working in partnership with the Irish Department of Health and Children, during Irelands Presidency of the EU, to call for consensus across Europe in addressing cardiovascular disease.
The first initiative of this partnership will take place next week, from 24-26 February 2004, when Cork, Ireland, will be host to Promoting Heart Health - A European Consensus. This meeting will bring together health and policy representatives from each of the 15 EU Member States and 10 Accession Countries with invited experts and delegates from the ESC and the European Heart Network to discuss the need for this European consensus and the next steps to achieving this.
Professor Jean-Pierre Bassand, ESC President, comments, The commitment that Ireland is demonstrating, not just on a national level but also on a European level, is highly commendable. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death in Europe and the EU Member States and Accession Countries must urgently work together to achieve consensus on how to tackle this. The ESC mission is to improve the qualit
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Contact: Camilla Dormer
cdormer@escardio.org
33-492-948-627
European Society of Cardiology
19-Feb-2004