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Collaboration on worldwide AF awareness campaign
February 17, 2011
The World Heart Federation, sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim announce collaboration on worldwide AF awareness campaign
Geneva, 15 February 2011 – The World Heart Federation, sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim have announced their collaboration on the AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation AWareness And Risk Education) campaign today, to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation (AF) and its links to severe consequences including cardiovascular (CV) mortality, stroke and CV hospitalizations. The campaign aims to promote education around the risks associated with AF as well as highlight the importance of early diagnosis and comprehensive management to maximize patient outcomes.
“AF is a growing public health issue, affecting not only the patients who live with the condition, but also their families and the healthcare systems in the countries where they live. Yet research shows there is a perceived lack of awareness and understanding of this condition,” said Johanna Ralston, Chief Executive Officer, World Heart Federation. “The AF AWARE campaign was established to specifically address the lack of awareness and endeavours to draw attention to this serious, chronic, disease, the consequences of which can have devastating effects on patients and healthcare systems.”
“Despite the fact that the complications of AF can be severe, for many people living with AF, the condition has very little noticeable impact on their lives, and in some cases goes undiagnosed and untreated, resulting in strokes that could be prevented. Up to three million people worldwide suffer strokes related to AF each year, with half of patients dying within 12 months,” said Klaus Dugi, Corporate Senior Vice President Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim. “We are delighted to support the AF AWARE campaign in 2011, as it is critical that effective action is taken now for individuals living with AF and their families, to ensure the optimal management of the condition, reducing the number of strokes related to AF.”
A recent report found that the lives of thousands of people living with AF could be at risk due to delay in time to diagnosis, poor adherence to treatment guidelines and lack of information for patients suffering from this debilitating heart condition.
People living with AF have a lower quality of life than healthy individuals, . as AF is also frequently associated with multiple CV co-morbidities which can adversely affect a patient’s long-term outcomes. AF carries a four- to five-fold increased risk of stroke and is associated with a high risk of CV events 3 and hospitalization. Using data from 10,000 AF patients, the REALISE AF registry showed that about 29% of AF patients had a CV event leading to unplanned hospitalization in the last 12 months.
“Atrial fibrillation is a major cause of morbidity and mortality which contributes to a substantial public health burden” said Nazira Amra, M.D., Associate Vice President, Global Anti-Arrhythmics Strategy, sanofi-aventis. “Sanofi-aventis has been supporting AF AWARE since its inception and we are delighted to continue this global initiative in collaboration with the World Heart Federation and Boehringer Ingelheim in order to raise AF awareness and promote better access to information for patients, their caregivers and health care providers.”
The World Heart Federation will lead the initiative internationally and will also work closely with SAFE (Stroke Alliance for Europe) and the Atrial Fibrillation Association (AFA), to deliver the programme. Agreements have been established with sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim for a co-sponsorship.
The activities of the AF AWARE campaign are supported by funding from both sanofi-aventis and Boehringer Ingelheim.
European Commission Launches - New Atrial Fibrillation Research Network
February 2, 2011
On 1st of November 2010, the European Commission has launched a new large scale collaborative project aiming at improvement of patient care in patients with Atrial Fibrillation. The “European Network forTranslational Research in Atrial Fibrillation” (EUTRAF) was granted atotal amount of 12 million Euros for integrated research in order to explore disease mechanisms and to develop better diagnostic means and new therapies in patients with Atrial Fibrillation. The total funding period of this network is 5 years.
The Need for Research on Atrial Fibrillation:
Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia,occurring in between 1 and 2% of the general population. More than 6 million Europeans suffer from this arrhythmia and its prevalence is expected to increase by more than 2 fold during the next 50 years. Thus, AF is said to stand at epidemic proportion. The most important complication of AF are ischemic strokes which occur 5 times more often in patients with AF and which – if survived – often leave the patient disabled requiring long-term clinical care.
At least one percent of the healthcare budget of Western European and North American countries is spent on the management of AF. AF therefore presents a rapidly growing social, medical and public health problem. “There is urgent need for better prevention of AF, more effective treatment of the arrhythmia and also for the prevention of disabling complications.” Prof. Camm,coordinator of the consortium working at St. George University in London says.
Structure and Participants of EUTRAF:
The European Network for Translational Research in Atrial Fibrillation (EUTRAF) is a multidisciplinary consortium of expert groups involved in atrial fibrillation research. The consortium consists of academic research groups and industry partners. Expertise ranges from molecular biology, genetics, and experimental electrophysiology, to engineering, computer science and cardiology. The partners will work in a matrix structure organized around central work packages each of which will utilize the full range of expertise provided by the network. Prof. Schotten, working at Maastricht University and one of the two technical field managers of EUTRAF, emphasizes the need for interdisciplinary collaboration: “In my opinion, bringing together diverse expertise’s, joining forces from different disciplines, from different institutions, and finally from different countries is nowadays essential in order to perform competitive and truly innovative research.”
The consortium is being led by Professor John Camm from St. George‘s University of London (UK) and consists of the following partners:
St-George’s University of London (UK)
Maastricht University (Netherlands)
Université Pierre Marie Curie – Paris (France)
Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire – Bordeaux (France)
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Germany)
University Hospital Magdeburg (Germany)
Universität Bern (Switzerland)
University Hospital Graz (Austria)
Medical Information Technology Solutions (Turkey)
University of Oxford (UK)
UK Health & Environment Research Institute (UK)
Sanofi-aventis Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
Osypka AG (Germany)
Xention Ltd (UK)
Ruprecht-Karls Universität – Heidelberg (Germany)
Philipps Universität – Marburg (Germany)
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität – Greifswald (Germany)
The Mission of EUTRAF:
EUTRAF’s mission is to improve the management of Atrial Fibrillation in Europe. This is intended to be achieved by identifying patients who are at-risk for AF at an early stage and by better understanding of the factors leading towards persistent AF. Another important strategy is to develop accurate diagnostic tools for identification of disease mechanisms in an individualpatient and to design a specific therapy for each patient based on these individual disease mechanisms.
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ESC Congress 2011
August 27 - 31, 2011
This year, ESC Congress goes to Paris. The event is the year’s “Rendez-vous” for everybody involved in Cardiovascular Medicine, from clinical practitioners to basic scientists, epidemiologists, nurses, technicians, health care industry, opinion leaders and policy makers from around the world.
Paris, France.
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