Chris Arden
Friday 11th January 2019
Heart Valve Voice Chairman Chris Young, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, is pleased to welcome Chris Arden, General Practitioner (GP) with a special interest in Cardiovascular Disease & Echocardiography and Editor in Chief of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Journal as the newest member of our esteemed trustee board.
As a GP Chris brings a wealth of knowledge of the primary care sector, one of the key areas of focus for us at Heart Valve Voice. Diagnosis of valve disease often starts with primary care and Chris is passionate about ensuring that the primary care community is more aware of the importance of stethoscope examinations, particularly amongst those aged over 65 age.
Chris has worked with Heart Valve Voice at many conferences, campaigns and projects over the past few years and his input and expertise has been vital in making these events so successful. His most recent work has included preparing and presenting our European Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day Primary Care Webinar on Heart Valve Disease Guidance as well as being a lead consultant on our Practical Guide for Primary Care back in 2016. The aim of this guidance is to offer practical advice on the diagnosis and referral of patients to enable timely assessment and appropriate treatment by the cardiology team.
Chris Young said “There are numerous projects planned in 2019 that will focus on the primary care community that will benefit from Dr Arden’s expertise, including new ways to increase the numbers of stethoscope examinations, auscultation training for clinicians including nurses and pharmacists and more testing events.”
Dr Arden said “Awareness of heart valve disease is very low in the UK, despite its prevalence, with an average of 94% of people over the age of 60 being unaware of what aortic stenosis (the most common form of heart valve disease) is. One of the reasons for the lack of awareness around heart valve disease is that the symptoms are often thought to be merely a result of getting older and are therefore ignored or tolerated.” said Chris, “I’m looking forward to continuing my work with Heart Valve Voice to make people more aware that these symptoms aren’t necessarily just signs of ageing, that they should be mentioned to a primary care professional and in turn the primary care professional should listen to their heart.”
He added “There are so many great things in store to help raise awareness of the need for early detection and diagnosis of heart valve disease and I am pleased to now be a part of the Heart Valve Voice team and to be involved in exciting future projects to come,” said Chris.