Over ten thousand Dutch people gave their opinions on it. And another hundred researchers, healthcare providers and patients contributed their expertise to it: the national cardiovascular agenda. Today, the Dutch Heart Foundation announces its ambitions and goals. The aim of Heart4Data, developing a sustainable infrastructure for registry-based research, aligns well with this: particularly in the areas of “Applying knowledge faster” and “Tackle heart failure,” the infrastructure will offer many opportunities.
Cardiovascular diseases are the second leading cause of death in the Netherlands. Cardiovascular diseases are also the main reason for hospital admissions. Currently, 1.7 million people in the Netherlands suffer from cardiovascular disease. This can and must change. How? Everyone can read that in the report Landelijke hart- en vaatagenda. The English version of the report will follow soon.
And that is only the beginning. The agenda was made at the initiative of the Dutch Heart Foundation by researchers, healthcare providers, patients and policymakers. And explicitly intended as a roadmap to tackle the seven top priorities we have identified together. Heart4Data therefore warmly calls on its supporters to read the report and join it.
Read the cardiovascular agenda report here:
These are the 7 ambitions of the cardiovascular agenda
- Health care for everyone
- Acknowledge our differences
- Apply knowledge faster
- Healthy environment
- Discover in time
- Right treatment, right person
- Tackle heart failure
Supported choices
“Cardiovascular diseases are one of the biggest health problems in the Netherlands. Even though health care and researchers in the Netherlands are among the best in the world: the number of people with cardiovascular diseases is rising much faster than the growth of our population. Only together with the government and everyone in the cardiovascular field we can make the Netherlands heart-healthier,” says Rebecca-Abma Schouten, Head of Research at the Dutch Heart Foundation and responsible for the creation of the agenda. “In this agenda, we make broadly supported choices for which seven top priorities we will take extra steps. What matters most? Where do you need the Dutch Heart Foundation? And, perhaps more importantly, what can others do?”
The biggest challenge here was to come up with topics that underlined the urgency for everyone to reverse the growth of cardiovascular disease. A guidance committee oversaw this process. Arthur Wilde, researcher and chairman of the supervisory committee: “We consulted so many people that we sometimes worried during the process that we would soon have an agenda of twenty topics. But quite remarkably: researchers, healthcare providers, patients and donors of the Dutch Heart Foundation turned out to be surprisingly in agreement.”
A broad-supported agenda: are you in?
New to the cardiovascular agenda, successor to the research agenda, is the approach, which is broader than just funding research. It includes topics such as future-proof health care, promoting prevention, increasing social awareness and timely recognition of serious cardiovascular diseases.
With the cardiovascular agenda we can together ensure that fewer people get cardiovascular diseases. To achieve this, there is still much to be done. What? You can read about that in the comprehensive report.
Read the National Cardiovascular Agenda report on the Dutch Heart Foundation website.
