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Countries involved in Heart Failure Awareness Day 2012
Countries around Europe will soon be planning diverse programmes for 11, 12 or 13 May 2012 to raise awareness of Heart Failure
2011 was a successful year for the Heart Failure Awareness Day. Not only did we have nearly 30 countries participating, but we also had a much wider range of activities in the individual programmes. Germany, for example, combined their activities with the opening of a Heart Failure Centre, in Slovenia some people went hiking as well as organising stands and in Serbia children from the local music school wrote and performed a rock song!
| Heart Failure Societies and Working Groups who are participating |
| Austria |
Belgium |
Bulgaria |
Germany |
| Great Britain |
Israel |
Latvia |
Lebanon |
| Lithuania |
Portugal |
Romania |
Serbia |
| Slovakia |
Slovenia |
Turkey |
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And you? |
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 What's happening at the 2012 Heart Failure Awareness Days.
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Austria
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Last year, Austria won a prize for its Heart Failure Awareness Day. We look forward to seeing the results of their campaign this year! This is what they propose:
We realised last year that it is very important to be present in the public throughout the year with heart failure topics.
After the last HF-Awareness day we managed to make heart failure an issue of some radio transmissions. In these programs, experts were invited to talk on heart failure issues and patients could ask for explanations and advice live on the radio.
Furthermore as a consequence of our press activity, we were part of a nationwide TV-magazine where I could present our nurse-based management programme Kardiomobil.
Additionally TV-broadcasters produced films on heart failure.
The first one was on the scope of the problem and medical therapy.
The second on device therapy (CRT/ICD)
The third was on assist devices and heart transplantation
Each program was transmitted about 8-10 times on a private TV-channel
Activities this year in Austria:
As in previous years, we will have a nationwide press conference in Vienna a few days before the HF-Awareness day. An influential PR-company is responsible for the distribution of the information throughout the country.
After an introduction repeating facts on heart failure, this year's topic is dedicated to different HF-management-programs. Austrian representatives of a home based nurse project in Salzburg, a telephone nursing project in Krems and a telemedicine project in Linz will intoduce their programs.
Folders on heart failure („The epidemic of the 21st century“) will be printed again. The folders will be distributed by employees of medical companies to hospitals and private practices of familiy physicians and internists/cardiologists.
Posters (from the HFA, translated into German) will be printed and distibuted again by employees of medical companies to hospitals, familiy physicians, internists and cardiologists in private practices. These posters are dedicated for the waiting area of these practices.
Additionally we are organizing heart failure education for doctors as every year. Our so called „Consenus Conferences“ take place each year in Innsbruck, Vienna and in Linz. This year we also organize the 3-Country meeting (Austria Germany,Switzerland). For 2012 we have engaged our PR-company to spread heart failure related topics to the media throughout the country before, while and after these meetings. |
Belgium
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Belgium will participate, as previous years, in this European project
We have 2 "regional coordinators" for the French and the Dutch centers:
With the working group, we will organise some national actions with the media and each center is free to organize their own activities, depending on their structure.
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Bulgaria
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We'll do our best to promote as widely as possible the Heart Failure Awareness Days in Bulgaria.
Thank you for the materials; they are very useful.
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Croatia
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The Croatian Cardiac Society will be delighted to celebrate the 3rd European Heart Failure Awareness Day on Sunday, May 13th.
The main manifestation is going to take place in the centre of the city of Zagreb, in a similar manner we use to celebrate the World Heart Day in September.
On Tuesday May 15th, a press conference will be organized to increase awareness of the importance of heart failure for our national morbidity and mortality. Thank you for the materials that will be of a great help for us to organize properly the HF Awareness Day in our country.
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Germany
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We plan an Open House in the Comprehensive Heart Failure Center and the University Hospital (Clinic of Internal Medicine) in Würzburg on May 12th.
Patients, relatives and the interested public are invited to:
1. Lectures about heart failure (e.g. “Heart Failure – what you should know about it”; “News from the Comprehensive Heart Failure Center: Research for our patients”)
2. Guided tours to the Comprehensive Heart Failure Center (e.g. treatment rooms), to the Clinic of Nuclear Medicine (e.g. production of radiopharmaceuticals) and to the Institute of Radiology (e.g. demonstration of MRI).
3. Information fair: Visitors can find out their risk for heart diseases (with measures of blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, BMI, ECG, etc.). We demonstrate a catheter treatment, provide information about prevention of heart failure (e.g. stop-smoking-programmes, sports for heart patients) and show heart devices. Information about cardiac arrhythmia and stroke will be given in a big walk-in artery (see photo!).
A few days before our Open House we offer a phone-in session (2 hours) for the public with heart failure specialists in cooperation with a local newspaper. Invitations to our Open House will be distributed as supplements to a newspaper and posters at chemist’s shops, the main station and clinics. Further information is provided on our website (www.dzhi.de). We also send press releases to the media.
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Great Britain
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There are always many events throughout Great Britain on a Heart Failure Awareness weekend - watch this space for details....
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Israel
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We are already planning the national awareness day. Due to local Israeli calendar limitations we will do it nationally on 9 and 10 May .
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Latvia
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The Latvian Society of Cardiology and Working Group on Heart Failure will support the activities of Heart Failure Awareness day on May 11-13.
We are going to inform mass media as in previous years and give some lectures to the patients and their relatives with questionnaires and presentation of main diagnostic tools of heart failure.
And we will post actual information about Heart Failure Awareness day, including advertising of www.heartfailurematters.org, on our website.
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Lebanon
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Heart Failure Awareness activities are being prepared!
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Lithuania
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Central Vinius will host the Heart Failure Awareness Day events
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Portugal
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We are planning to start our activities the 11 May, reaching the public through the media, namely TV and major newspapers. Information will be sent to sites directed to the public. The Portuguese Society of Cardiology will also display information directed to the public, general practitioners and cardiologists.
We are also trying to get permission to do a gathering in a busy square of Porto, and start there a walk; there will be the flyers on heart failure, translated into Portuguese.
On May 12, we are organizing a meeting with general practicioners on heart failure.
There will be annoucements of these actions, namely posters, in hospitals and outpatient clinics. |
Serbia
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As usual, Serbia is at the forefront of Awareness Day promotion - we're looking forward to what they can offer this year...
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Slovakia
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Plans are underway for Awareness Day in Slovakia. We look forward to hearing more.
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Slovenia
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The activities to conduct the 2012 Heart Failure Awareness Day are well under way.
Currently we have a video to be broadcasted on national and local TV. We will also launch a website with information about heart failure, specifically adjusted to the needs of lay public and patients. Our local teams will organize lectures, promotional stands, open days in hospitals, exercise promotion, and anything else that is
in their capability. All of them will wear same T-shirts with the logo of the campaign; we also issued a brochure and a booklet for lay public and patients to be distributed during activites. Local teams will liaise with city majors, who will help them to promote the activities and to assure the attendance. Local and national media will cover the activities.
As our national cardiac society meeting coincides with the HFAD, I will give a talk about prevention of Heart failure and I will include the HFAD activities.
To increase awareness among doctors, we will conduct cross-sectional study about anaemia and ID in all Slovenian hospitals.
We also are wrapping up the 2011 HFAD: two posters to be presented at HFA 2012 meeting and two papers are being written. We expect to submit at least one (about HF awareness) to EJHF before the Belgrade meeting.
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Turkey
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The Heart Failure Working Group of Turkish Society of Cardiology will participate, for the first time, in the activities of Heart Failure Awareness Day 2012 programme in Europe. Some of the activities scheduled for this event on the 11-13 May, 2012 is as follow:
The heart failure information brochure for heart failure patients on the HFA website will be translated into Turkish and sent to almost 3000-5000 doctors including cardiologists, internists, family physcians, cardiovascular surgeons, general practitioners, emergency department physicians for their use to distribute
A new comprehensive information about heart failure prepared by our Working Group of Heart Failure will take place on the website page of Heart Failure Working Group
Newspaper announcements of the Heart Failure Awareness Day will be planned
Announcement of the Heart Failure Awareness Day will appear on the official website of Turkish Society of Cardiology (www.tkd.org.tr)
Board members from the Heart Failure Working Group of the Turkish Society of Cardiolgy will give interviews about the definition, signs, symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention of Heart Failure on national TV channels
Management of heart failure in Turkey will be discussed based on the results of TACTIC and HAPPY studies, which are our national epidemiologic studies on acute and chronic heart failure, on a live webinar panel on Turkish Society of Cardiology- TV, which is anticipated to reach almost 1000 physicians.
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Link to last year's activities |
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