3,000 Patients Targeted as Program Rolls Out to with World Hypertension Day - May 17
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: The Emirates Cardiac Society has announced the launch of the first interactive module-based approach to target cardiovascular disease management in the UAE, 'Love Your Heart Healthy', to coincide with World Hypertension Day on May 17.
Initially targeting 3,000 patients through as many as 300 primary health care physicians, the program, supported exclusively by industry partner Novartis, aims to reduce the staggeringly low rate of blood pressure control across the country.
"This is a unique program, developed to enhance the patient/physician risk-based interface, and help uncontrolled and high risk patients to visualize the risk, understand risk factors, and call for action on lifestyle modification and adherence levels," said Dr Fahd Omar Baslaib, President of Emirates Cardiac Society.
"The toolkit has interesting educational elements which will help the patients be motivated and engaged to contribute to their therapy success and reach better patient outcomes," he added.
The Love Your Heart Healthy Program has three key pillars which will be implemented over the course of the year:
- Patient - Physician interface,
- Focused continuous education in order to improve patient outcomes, and
- Targeted screening supported by state of the art tools and certified training.
According to a recent local arm of an international study, 41 percent of the UAE population aged 30 years and older has high blood pressure (hypertension), significantly higher than the global average of 25 to 30 percent according to latest data from the World Health Organisation, which has also warned that prevalence will double to 50 to 60 percent by 2025.
Local experts have found that more than 80 percent of patients with hypertension are not at achieving the target blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg, despite taking prescribed medications. The findings indicate that patients require more regular review and medication adjustment.
Blood pressure must be maintained within target levels using the correct medications and a healthy lifestyle the help reduce the risk of hypertensive patients suffering from heart attack, stroke and kidney failure, according to international guidance.
"With hypertension prevalence set to rise, there needs to be a concerted effort among physicians to continue to push for regular blood pressure checks in their patients. The 'Love Your Heart Healthy' program contains kits for both patients and physicians to provide them all the necessary tools and information to help reduce hypertension risk and prevalence in the UAE in an interactive, comprehensive way," said Dr. Baslaib.
The UAE is already seeing a rise in cases of hypertension, especially among a growing number of younger people (under 35), as a result of unhealthy lifestyles including poor diet and lack of exercise. However, because the disease is symptomless many people are unaware they have high blood pressure and go undiagnosed.
The disease is known as the 'silent killer' as many patients do not experience any symptoms and are frequently unaware that they even suffer from high blood pressure. It's very important for the public to be aware of the contributing factors to high blood pressure and regularly take part in screenings in order to diagnose hypertension as early as possible," concluded Dr. Baslaib.
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© Press Release 2012
