The project

Background

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and diabetes are leading causes of death and morbidity globally, inflicting a heavy burden on health systems, and are closely related on health inequalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on cardiovascular care, exacerbating existing challenges and triggering new ones.

As previously highlighted by We CARE, the severe disruption of cardiovascular care pathways worldwide resulted in:

increased morbidity and mortality for both chronic and acute cardiac patients
incremental societal costs for healthcare systems

Interruption in the continuity of care and reduction of patient access to acute interventional care demonstrated the unpreparedness of healthcare services and the significant risk of impact on the quality of essential cardiovascular care services in times of healthcare or societal crises.

In the face of future crises, it is crucial to take action to improve cardiovascular care resilience and enhance health systems’ preparedness, drawing the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and thoroughly focusing on the current resilience state across States and differences across health systems, also considering socio-economic health determinants.

Objectives and key project outcome

The RESIL-Card project aims to contribute to reducing the CVD burden in the EU Member States in times of crisis by identifying and defining disruptions of CV care pathways driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lessons learned during this crisis to ensure the continuity of CVD care in the future.

The development of a ground-breaking resilience assessment tool and set of recommendations for the maintenance of essential critical care that cannot be discontinued in any situation will enable cardiac care systems in the EU Member States to self-assess their preparedness and resilience for crises, and work towards improving care delivery for CVD patients while ensuring care continuity in challenging times.

By engaging all the stakeholders of the cardiovascular care continuum – with a specific focus on improving patient awareness and health literacy – RESIL-Card will foster better patient-centred integrated care pathways and contribute to reducing care access inequalities.

Consortium, partners and Advisory Board

Led by the network of global interventional cardiologists We CARE (France), the RESIL-Card consortium brings together experts in public health delivery research (Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands), in hemodynamic and interventional cardiology (Italian Society of Interventional Cardiology GISE, Italy) and in public healthcare coverage and organisation (Catalan Health Service CatSalut, Spain).

The project is further supported by the complementary expertise of the National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health (Ireland), Global Heart Hub (Ireland), Cittadinanzattiva (Italy), and Europa Group (France).

The Advisory Board features organisations such as Women as One (international), the EAPCI Nurses and Allied Professionals Committee (EU), the GISE Foundation (Italy), as well as some physicians from Ukraine.

Interested in the project?

Whether you are a healthcare practitioner or representing a medical institution, a patient organisation, a public authority, a media, we are eager to hear from you.