The 4th Global Summit on Circulatory Health, held in Paris in August, brought together stakeholders from around the world to focus on Innovations in Circulatory Care and Technologies. Hosted by the World Heart Federation on behalf of partners in the Global Coalition for Circulatory Health, the conference explored the role, potential and challenges of harnessing established and emerging technology to address the leading cause of death and disability globally.
In a session on the Implications of Digital Health for Health Systems, WSO President Michael Brainin, highlighted the evidence that supports the use of mobile technologies within an overall prevention strategy that encompasses policy, community interventions and pharmacological innovation. Interventions such as the WSO endorsed Stroke Riskometer, he said, had opened a new chapter for stroke prevention, putting the tools for change in the hands of huge numbers of people and thereby offering unprecedented potential to achieve substantive reductions in stroke incidence. Prof. Brainin referenced the WSO endorsed Stroke Riskometer, which delivers evidence based individual risk assessment, paired with motivational and behaviour change via mobile phone. The Riskometer is a prime example of a digital tool that ‘allows us to make advances on prevention for low and medium risk populations in ways that have not been possible before.’