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Euro 2017

Monday 25th September 2017

This week the team from Heart Valve Voice has been on the road attending a string of events and conferences in order to expand our knowledge and our reach with clinicians and valve disease experts.

So far the first event has seen us in Southampton attending our inaugural South Coast Summit. This event brought together clinicians, heart valve experts, patient representatives and political figures for a discussion providing a more detailed picture of the challenges and blockages heart valve disease patients experience in the UK. The meeting was a great way to establish examples of best practise as well as successful and innovative patient pathways for the diagnosis, treatment and management of heart valve disease.

The second event, a cardiology GP update, was an opportunity for us to meet with GPs from across the country to discuss ways in which valve disease can be detected from a primary care perspective. There were some very informative presentations from some of our expert ambassadors including Simon Redwood, Consultant Cardiologist, Bernard Prendergast, Consultant Cardiologist, and our Chairman Chris Young, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon who provided the group with a demonstration of how MDTs are carried out.

The rest of the week sees us at the EuroPCR London Valves conference where we started our three days here with an meeting of some of our fellow heart valve disease patient action charities from across Europe. The meeting was an excellent chance for us to discuss the opportunities and challenges each country is facing with regards to valve disease awareness and access to treatment for patients. While we each found some differences between the countries, we also found some strong similarities including our common goal of ensuring that all of our patients receive timely treatment in order to experience the improved quality of life that they all deserve.

So far it's been a great tour and we look forward to the last few days which will include a presentation from Wil Woan our CEO along with some top clinicians such as Phil MacCarthy, Interventional Consultant Cardiologist and the Clinical Director for Cardiac Services at King's in London and Bernard Prendergast. They will be talking about the changing paradigms in Valvular Heart Disease.