Hi-tech clothing to monitor HeartCycle

27 Feb '08

3 min read

Cardiovascular disease kills around 1.9 million people every year in the EU, with the associated annual health costs estimated at EUR 105 billion. Around half of these deaths occur in people who have previously had a heart attack, most of whom will develop heart failure before they die.

There are currently around 10 million heart failure patients in the EU and it is one of the commonest medical reasons for hospitalization in adults. Finding better ways to manage and treat coronary heart disease and chronic heart failure is therefore seen as one of the most effective ways of reducing the human cost and financial burden of these debilitating conditions.

“The greatest challenge and opportunity for the management of long-term medical conditions is to help patients to help themselves,” says Professor John Cleland MD, Head of the Department of Cardiology at the University of Hull (UK), past chairman of both the Working Group on Heart Failure of the European Society of Cardiology and of the British Society for Heart Failure and Chief Medical Officer of the HeartCycle project.

“Investing directly in people who need help, and not just in services that do things to or for them, makes sense in terms of improved care, greater affordability and the effective deployment of scarce nursing and medical resources.”

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