The key to decreasing the disparities in health care in the region of Eastern Europe may be the increase of awareness of the danger of sudden cardiac death in all respected communities, such as medical professionals (arrhythmologists and physiologists in general) and patient association, as well as among industry partners, health insurance providers, health care policy makers and media and general public.
Awareness has become very important as new and very effective therapies such as Implantable cardioverters-defibrillators (ICD) have appeared during last several years and, therefore, a need for support of the modern treatment of sudden cardiac death grew up.
In order to increase the awareness, EHRA has developed a platform called “ICD for Life”. This platform consists of 2 elements:
- “ICD for Life Initiative”. More information available here
- The “Eastern Initiative Summit” held in Belgrade, Serbia on 19-20 October 2012. Preliminary programme available here.