EuroHeart is a 3-year project co-funded by the European Commission Public Health Programme 2003-2008. To strengthen cross-sector cooperation, it has been developed by the European Society of Cardiology along with the European Heart Network and brings together 30 partners in 21 European countries. The project started in April 2007 and will finish in March 2010.
Its general objective is to determine areas of policies and public health interventions which can contribute to prevent avoidable deaths and disability across Europe.
The specific objectives of the EuroHeart project are to:
- Mobilise broad support for cardiovascular health promotion and cardiovascular disease prevention with a view to achieving stronger cross sector cooperation, through the launch of a European Heart Health Charter. The aim of the Charter is to substantially reduce the burden of CVD in the European Union and the WHO European Region and to reduce inequalities/inequities in the disease burden within and between countries.
- Map and analyse national plans, policies and measures impacting on cardiovascular health promotion and cardiovascular disease prevention. This objective aims to obtain comprehensive comparable information on policies and actions impacting on cardiovascular health (CVH) promotion and CVD prevention in 16 EU countries. It will provide a model for national plans. It will also identify gaps in policies and actions across Europe and improve awareness of the importance of considering heart health in a wide range of policies. A table listing policies that impact on behavioural aspects of CVH/CVD will be drawn and filled in with an analysis of which policies are adopted and implemented in the participating countries. Equally, a table listing measures including emergency services, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), implementation of guidelines will be drawn up and filled in with information from the participating countries.
- Improve the awareness, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease in women. The work package will collate information on research specifically on women, enrolment of women in clinical trials, awareness-raising campaigns targeting women and educational programmes targeting health professionals. It aims at improving the awareness, diagnosis and treatment of CVD in women. It will also provide recommendations for awareness campaigns targeting women and for educational programmes for health professionals.
- Improve prevention practices at primary care level by developing local- language versions of the web-based interactive CVD risk assessment tool, HeartScore. Within this work package, 5 new countries will translate and adapt Heartscore.
- Improve the standards of clinical practice by facilitating the translation, adaptation and implementation of the European guidelines on CVD prevention. The adaptation/translation of the guidelines to the national situations will facilitate the use of the guidelines by the medical community in each country. This will lead to increased knowledge on preventive measures and risk factor identification and will reduce the gap between objectives outlined in the European guidelines for CVD prevention and the day-to-day situation in clinical practice. Moreover, the adaptation/translation of the guidelines to the national situations will allow networking and development of national alliances among sister organisations (e.g. equivalent to the Joint Prevention Committee at European level).