Family matters: health policies to tackle cardiomyopathies across Europe

Cardiovascular diseases are currently the focus of mounting calls for increased health policy attention in many European countries and European level, being the leading cause of death across Europe and conferring an enormous economic burden—recently estimated at €282 billion annually across the European Union (EU).1 That said, not all countries have a national cardiovascular action plan and gaps exist in those that do. While policy efforts rightly place a major focus on the prevention of acquired age-related conditions, cardiomyopathies—i.e. primary myocardial diseases—are often overlooked. Cardiomyopathies, which are often inherited,2 are far from rare with prevalence rates for the most common forms as high as 1/250.3 Cardiomyopathies can increase the risk of sudden cardiac death, cause incapacitating symptoms, impair the quality of life of patients and families, and are a leading reason for heart transplantation in the very young. Healthcare costs are often high, especially when patients need to be hospitalized.4 New clinical guidelines published by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve the standards of cardiomyopathy care across Europe.2 However, patients’ and families’ access to such care depends heavily on policy and health system factors that can vary between and within countries. These policy factors include support for expert centre networks, screening programmes, and reimbursement of guideline-recommended tests (Table 1).