19 February 2020
February is World Heart Month, an opportunity for various forms of heart disease to take centre stage and a time to bring attention to the importance of cardiovascular health.
07 February 2020
Having set out our list of pledges for 2020 in my previous blog it is now down to us to turn those pledges into reality. January presented me with two opportunities to not only talk with clinicians and industry leaders about their plans for the year ahead but also develop our own strategies based on these discussions.
14 January 2020
Happy new year!! I hope you all had a great festive period and a lovely new year. The festive period gave us an opportunity to reflect on the work we did last year, and our End of Year report really crystallises all that we were able to achieve.
09 December 2019
After the incredible PCR Conference, a fortnight ago, this week we’ve been at the British and Irish Society for Minimal Invasive Cardiac Surgery (BISMICS) conference talking to medical professionals and industry leaders about the improving innovation of minimal invasive surgery and what the future hold for this surgical technique.
19 November 2019
Wow, Five years! To see a report which crystallises the hard work that has been put in over these past five years is heart-warming. Whilst the future of heart valve disease looks challenging, seeing how we turned the aims and aspirations from five years ago into real change provides hope.
01 November 2019
In my previous blog I discussed the challenging inequalities in access to echo, explaining how diversifying who is carrying out examinations and where they are carried out will be key to improving patient pathways and reducing inequalities.
16 October 2019
Having just attended the British Society of Echocardiography (BSE) conference, I wanted to look at the problems with access to echo, what is being done about it and what more needs to be done.
06 October 2019
Day Two Part Two- Patient choice seemed to be something that kept coming up (and I’m glad of it). The advancements in MIS are creating more choices, but the barriers I heard about when discussing MIS are alarming.
05 October 2019
Day Two Part One After yesterday I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of patients voice in Heart Valve Voice and heart valve disease more broadly. I love my role as a patient advocate, I take it seriously and yet last night I had to pinch myself sat in the beautiful Portuguese evening as I thought you don’t often get the opportunity to give back and in such wonderful places!
04 October 2019
Day One- Afternoon Having spoken about all the advancements in treatment options I now wanted to know what barriers were stopping patients accessing these treatments.