Last week, Heart Valve Voice held an Evidence Roundtable on HMS Belfast featuring patients, clinicians, industry representatives and key opinion leaders from the health and patient advocacy space. We were asked to do this by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease, who wanted to understand the current challenges in the patient pathway, as well as the ideas and [...]

Earlier this year, Clinical Lead for Intervention at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Dr Clare Appleby, gave a presentation to leading figures in the heart valve disease world about gender inequalities in heart valve disease treatment. Here, Dr Appleby discusses that presentation and looks at how to address inequalities in heart valve disease care. “Broadly speaking, there is clear evidence [...]

Earlier this week, I was asked to represent Heart Valve Voice and its patient community at a Westminster Health Forum event on Next Steps for Diagnostics and Medical Devices in England. The event featured stakeholders from across the health space, with policymakers, industry professionals and clinical leaders coming together to share their thoughts and ideas. I was there as a [...]

We recently met with Louise Bache, CEO of Heartbeat, a cardiac rehabilitation centre in the North-West. We asked Louise to write a piece for our community about the importance of good cardiac rehab and the lasting impact it can have on cardiac patients. Here is what she said: "Heartbeat is a well-established and experienced charity bringing support to many people [...]

We held the fifth stage of our Your Heart Matters tour last week. For this project, we have travelled across the United Kingdom promoting awareness of heart valve disease and offering stethoscope checks to those over the 50. So far, we have listened to well over a thousand hearts and found over one hundred previously undetected cardiac conditions. We know [...]

This year, as part of International Women's Day 2022, we asked our patient advocate, Livvy Gosney, for her thoughts on the unique challenges women face while undergoing heart valve disease treatment. Here is what she said: "I take great pride in being a mum, and I’m good mum, but when my symptoms got bad I didn’t feel like I could [...]

After being born with a hole in her heart, Angie Martin first had open heart surgery when she was a small girl. Fast forward 40 years and Angie's leaky valve began to deteriorate and needed urgent intervention. After being told she needed an operation, a pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. However, despite the pressures on the health service, [...]

Since the inception of Heart Valve Voice, it has always been our intention to be a charity that promotes awareness of the condition, give a voice to those who have experienced it and improve the structures that determine the quality of care that patients in the UK receive. We have worked with policymakers throughout the past six years. Still, forming [...]

Earlier this year, a group of heart valve disease patients were asked by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Heart Valve Disease to share their experiences of valve disease treatment with the group. During the evidence session, the patients were asked about detection and diagnosis of the condition, as well as access to treatment and the information they were provided with. [...]

I decided to contact my MP after seeing Heart Valve Voice's #JustTreatUs campaign and thought it important to share my story and the stories of other valve disease patients. So that evening, I reached out to my local MP, Tim Loughton. I was really surprised to receive a reply in just a few hours, as I’m very aware of how [...]