iPACT Paper on Atrial Fibrillation in the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis
iPACT's paper showcasing the AF awareness and early detection campaign undertaken by pharmacists from 10 countries and involving physicians, nurses and patient advocates is out.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) accounts for up to one third of strokes, one of the lead mortality causes worldwide. The European Society of Cardiology guidelines recommend opportunistic screening as a means to increase the odds of early detection and institution of appropriate treatment according to risk factors identified. However, in most countries there are various barriers to effective uptake of screening, including low awareness.
iPACT established a partnership with the Atrial Fibrillation Association (AFA), which is a patient association engaged with raising awareness of AF. The aim of the partnership was to test a model for raising awareness of AF and to identify barriers and enablers to its implementation.
Pharmacists from 10 countries invited individuals (over the age of 40, without anticoagulation therapy of AF) to participate in the Know Your Pulse awareness campaign. A cross-sectional study was conducted during the Arrhythmia Alliance World Heart Rhythm Week. A paper has just been published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Thrombolysis about the results of the study. You can access the paper here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11239-019-02000-x
Nine of the fourteen authors of the paper are iPACT members:
- Ben Freedman
- Dale Griffiths (iPACT Member, New Zealand)
- Ema Paulino
- Filipa Alves da Costa (iPACT Board Member, Portugal)
- John Papastergiou (iPACT Board Member, Canada)
- Katerina Mala-Ladova (iPACT Member, Czech Republic)
- Kurt E. Hersberger (iPACT Member, Switzerland)
- Lis Neubeck
- Marie-Camille Chaumais
- Reka Viola (iPACT Member, Hungary)
- Salvador Tous (iPACT Member, Spain)
- Sotiris Antoniou (iPACT Chair, U.K.)
- Trudie Lobban (iPACT Member, U.K.)
- Vivian Lee
You can read more about the Know Your Pulse campaign on our Projects page by clicking on the Know Your Pulse header.