Wednesday 29th January 2020

We are are pleased to see valve disease research identified in the Top 10 research priorities compiled by Heart Surgery Priority Setting Partnership at the University of Leicester Medical School.

The project was a collaboration between the University of Leicester and the NIHR James Lind Alliance, and will seek to translate these priorities into research questions and clinical trials that will inform best practice.

To enable this, the British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Collaborative and Heart Research UK are hosting a National Cardiac Surgery Research Workshop later in the year, which Heart Valve Voice will be attending along with our patient advocates.

This meeting will bring together patients, clinicians, and researchers, to establish multidisciplinary working groups.

Heart Valve Voice Chairman Chris Young said “This is an exciting announcement and an important development in heart valve disease care. The MDT approach is absolutely the right way to develop best practice guidelines and I’m pleased Heart Valve Voice and our patients will be part of the process. I’m also sure that our Gold Standard of Care will contribute an important role in the discussions too."

Heart Valve Voice champions this approach, and will ensure that valve disease patients continue to play an important part in the development of best practice and guidelines.

Heart Valve Voice Trustee and Patient Advocate Patricia Khan said ”Not only is it important to see the continued recognition of heart valve disease in research projects like this, but to know that we, the patients, will be a key part of developing best practice is reassuring for me and other valve disease patients.”

We look forward to working with these groups and are excited to see what we can achieve together.