Spotlight on: Secondary prevention of recurrent atherothrombotic events among high-risk patients

In August 2017, pharmaphorum filmed a roundtable debate relating to cardiovascular disease, sponsored by AstraZeneca, to discuss the topic of ‘Secondary prevention of recurrent atherothrombotic events among high-risk patients’. The video media outputs can be found here.

Sponsored by AstraZeneca, the debate featured four expert participants (see below) and was moderated by Dr Paul Tunnah. Both individual interviews and the full roundtable debate were filmed, which covered three key sections:

• Epidemiology and background of recurrent atherothrombotic events in high-risk patients
• Challenges to secondary prevention in current clinical practice
• The opportunity for improved secondary prevention of recurrent atherothrombotic events among high-risk patients

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death globally; more people die annually from CVD than from any other cause. Recent European Heart Network statistics indicate that CVD accounts for 47% of all deaths in Europe, and each year seven million people suffer from an acute coronary syndrome despite advances in medical technology, knowledge and new drugs that have helped to improve outcomes.^1,2

Secondary prevention of heart attacks in high-risk patients is important throughout the world – not only does it save lives but it reduces costs for healthcare systems that are adapting to the needs of ageing populations. The World Health Organization has identified a number of cost-effective interventions that can be implemented even in low-resource settings. These include effective implementation of secondary prevention measures; when secondary prevention medications are used together with smoking cessation, nearly 75% of recurrent vascular events may be prevented.¹

This media hub page links all media components from this debate together for ease of viewing.

The roundtable debate was organised and funded by AstraZeneca. We recommend also viewing the LabTalk section of the AstraZeneca corporate site for more related materials.

References

1. WHO Cardiovascular Diseases Fact Sheet. Updated May 2017. Available from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs317/en/. Accessed on 6 November 2017.

2. European Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2017. Available from http://www.ehnheart.org/cvd-statistics.html. Accessed on 6 November 2017.