Connecting prevention to intervention is key to a successful Safe Hearts Plan

Let’s get to the heart of it: good health is fundamental to personal well-being, societal stability, and national prosperity. Yet, when it comes to cardiovascular diseases, many people across Europe still experience major gaps in accessing high-quality care. This underscores the critical need for sustainable, scalable approaches that will help deliver better care for more people.

Cardiovascular diseases, including heart diseases and stroke, are one of the leading causes of death and disability across the European Union (EU), claiming 1.7 million lives each year, and affecting over 60 million people. The impact reaches far beyond mortality – it affects how we live, work and age, often limiting physical activity, increasing fatigue and anxiety, and placing a lasting burden on families and health systems. It also carries a major economic cost, amounting to more than €282 billion each year across the EU in lost productivity and reduced economic output, not to mention its wider impact on quality of life and well-being.

In my view, that scale of impact makes one thing clear: we can no longer afford to address cardiovascular diseases in fragments. A comprehensive, integrated approach is key to linking prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and recovery in a way that is centred on patients’ needs and experiences.

That is why the recent launch of the first EU Cardiovascular Health Plan Safe Hearts marks an important step forward. The opportunity now is to transform aspiration into tangible outcomes: better access to care, timely treatment and equitable support across all communities, regardless of where they live.

Closing the care gap

Europe has made meaningful progress in cardiovascular care, but the benefits of that progress are still not reaching everyone equally. Across the region, gaps remain in access, outcomes and capacity, and too often the focus remains on managing disease rather than preventing it earlier or improving how patients move through care once they enter the system.

Access to timely care remains another major challenge. According to Philips Future Health Index (FHI) 2025 report, 9 in 10 cardiac patients experience delays in seeing a specialist.

At the same time, healthcare professionals are working in environments where time and capacity are under constant pressure. Our FHI findings also show that 79% of cardiac care professionals lose clinical time because patient data is incomplete or inaccessible, with almost half losing more than 45 minutes per shift. To me, this is one of the clearest signs that Europe’s response to managing the burden of cardiovascular diseases must do more than just expand access and infrastructure – it must also improve how care is organised and delivered.

Prevention needs to connect to treatment

The new Safe Hearts Plan, which outlines comprehensive strategies that leverage digital innovation, research and knowledge, and efforts to address unequal access to care, is an important step towards addressing these challenges. Acting early can make all the difference including preventing modifiable risk factors such as high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol. Earlier diagnosis can also help avoid progression to more complex diseases and more burdensome treatment later.

However, prevention alone will not be enough. For many patients, the real test begins once risk has been identified. Can the system move quickly enough from diagnosis to treatment? Can clinicians access the information they need to make confident decisions without avoidable delay? Do they have access to the treatment they need to improve outcomes?

In cardiovascular care, progress depends on how diagnostics, clinical data, workflow, and treatment come together around the patient. This is where organisations like Philips can help improve the patient journey across the whole pathway.

That starts with earlier and more confident detection, supported by advanced imaging and real-time visualisation tools that enhance diagnostic confidence. It continues in the treatment setting, where minimally invasive procedures such as percutaneous coronary intervention can be supported by integrated imaging, physiology and workflow tools. Together, the systems, devices and applications integrate across every step of the PCI procedure and work intelligently to efficiently support every step of coronary procedures from diagnosis to restoring vessel patency.

Importantly, this is not just about doing procedures differently. It is also about giving clinicians the clarity and confidence to make better-informed decisions during intervention. For example, in coronary artery disease, using intravascular imaging helps with disease diagnosis and supports confirming treatment results, including diagnosis of dissections, the completeness of treatment, and the apposition and expansion of stent placement.

Thanks to the ongoing innovation of image-guided therapies, patients can be treated with increasing precision in minimally invasive ways. Yet access remains uneven, and many patients who could benefit from these advances still do not receive them in time. That unmet need is particularly relevant in cardiology and should be part of Europe’s broader cardiovascular policy conversation.

Another big opportunity lies in integration across the pathway. When imaging, patient information, devices and workflow support come together more effectively, care teams can make faster decisions, manage complexity with greater confidence and treat more patients without compromising quality. That is especially important as cardiovascular procedures become more complex, and health systems face mounting pressure on staff and capacity.

What needs to happen next

The Safe Hearts Plan provides a strong foundation. The priority now is for EU Member States to turn that direction into national cardiovascular health plans that reflect their own health system needs, capacity and starting point. That is where implementation will become real.

Within those plans, treatment pathways should also have a clear place alongside prevention and early detection. For example, implementing innovations within minimally invasive image-guided treatments that can support earlier, more confident decisions and safer, more efficient procedures, helping reduce complications, shorten hospital stays and expand capacity.

The next step is to implement the funding, so that policy ambition is matched by practical investment in care delivery. Without that follow-through, Europe risks setting the right direction without creating enough momentum for patients to feel the benefit.

I believe the Safe Hearts Plan gives Europe a clear direction. What matters now is whether we act with enough urgency to turn that direction into better care for more people. Because across Europe today, patients are still waiting for care that could change, or even save, their lives.