Paris, France, 14 May 2024. Co-funded by the EU4Health programme, the 3-year RESIL-Card project is in the first stages of developing and implementing a ground-breaking resilience assessment toolkit. Its aim is to enable stakeholders of the European cardiovascular care systems to self-assess and improve preparedness and continuity of cardiovascular care during times of crises. The project is at the initiative of We CARE, in a consortium formed with the GISE (Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology), public health experts from Amsterdam UMC (University Medical Center) and CatSalut (the Catalan Health Service).
A project prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic
The pandemic demonstrated the general unpreparedness of healthcare services during crises. There was notably a significant disruption to cardiovascular care, including a substantial decline in the number of life-saving interventions such as procedures to treat acute myocardial infarction and stenotic aortic valves (Roffi et al., 2020; Lunardi et al., 2024). Through collaboration, innovation and a commitment to excellence, the RESIL-Card project aims to future-proof cardiovascular care across Europe, if a similar situation arises.
The RESIL-Card project’s 6 main objectives
- Identify and document major gaps/barriers, good practices and lessons learned from the pandemic regarding cardiovascular care efficiency and resilience in times of crises.
- Develop a resilience assessment toolkit to support local and regional processes and minimum requirements for resilience.
- Make recommendations and contribute to guideline development for improved care pathways to enhance communication between all patient care levels and between healthcare professionals, patients and their families.
- Empower EU Member States and policymakers to provide patients and healthcare systems with protocols, monitoring tools and awareness engines that ensure actionable measures in a variety of scenarios.
- Mobilise and engage all relevant stakeholders in piloting a set of recommendations across sites where pandemic preparedness levels differ.
- Reduce inequalities with respect to awareness, accessibility and inclusion in care pathways by integrating under-represented and marginalised social groups.
The first phase is currently underway
The resilience assessment toolkit is being developed using a bottom-up approach. This includes the diagnosis of continuity of care issues, encompassing a scoping literature review, a large-scale survey of healthcare professionals and the feedback of focus groups, with multiple stakeholders involved in discussing key barriers/facilitators and best clinical practices. Once elaborated, the tool will be methodically pilot tested in Spain and Italy, so that it can be duly adapted and refined then widely disseminated across the continent.
CardioLeague is counting steps for RESIL-Card at EuroPCR
Throughout the World-Leading Course in interventional cardiovascular medicine taking place at the Palais des Congrès in Paris on 14-17 May 2024, participants’ steps will be counted through a dedicated app. The gradually increasing total number of steps will be displayed live on screens around the venue, raising the promised donation to the RESIL-Card project to a maximum of €20,000. This novel CardioLeague step-count challenge is powered by Medtronic in collaboration with PCR, and will contribute to funding the project’s future communication and dissemination activities.
Widespread support for the project
The RESIL-Card project is supported by the expertise of Ireland’s National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health, Italy’s Cittadinanzattiva, the Global Heart Hub and Europa Group. An Advisory Board has also been formed, made up of members of the international Women as One group, the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Intervention’s Nurses and Allied Professionals Committee, the European Emergency Medical Services Leadership Network, the GISE Foundation and leading interventional cardiologists from Ukraine. Across all RESIL-Card activities, We CARE will oversee project co-ordination, working with the Advisory Board and managing finances, data, publications, and ethics assessments.
Roffi et al. EuroIntervention. 2020 Jun 25;16(3):247-250.
Lunardi et al. Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes. 2024 Jan 12;10(1):25-35.
More details regarding We CARE and RESIL-Card will be found here: www.wecareabouthearts.com
Activities can be followed on social medial using the hashtag: #WeCareAboutHearts
https://twitter.com/WeCareAboutHea1
https://www.linkedin.com/company/wecareabouthearts
Notes to editors
About We CARE
The We CARE initiative was inspired by the challenging global pandemic of Covid-19 and launched by PCR and Stent – Save a Life! in May 2021. Led by a network of international interventional cardiologists, nurses and allied professionals, its remit is to support all stakeholders in the cardiovascular field to sustainably deliver effective and timely patient care, whatever the circ*mstances.
For further information, please contact Sandrine Wallace: swallace@wecare-alliance.com
About PCR
The mission of PCR is to serve the needs of each individual patient by helping the cardiovascular community share knowledge, experience, and practice. PCR offers a wide range of educational meetings and resources for the interventional cardiovascular community's continuing education. These include major annual Courses, e-Learning with high-profile PCR Webinars, tailor-made PCR Seminars on specific topics, online resources and medical publications such as EuroIntervention, the official journal of the EAPCI.
Gateways to all PCR activities are available on www.pcronline.com
For further information, please contact Sally Collingridge: scollingridge@europa-group.com
About Stent – Save a Life!
The Stent – Save a Life! global initiative aims to improve access to guideline complying therapy and the lifesaving indication of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (p-PCI), thereby reducing mortality and morbidity in patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
More details of Stent – Save a Life! activities will be found here: www.stentsavealife.com
For further information, please contact Dr Jan Piek: j.j.piek@amsterdamumc.nl
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