International Institute for Society and Health
2006/07 PUBLIC SEMINAR SERIES
You are invited to attend
Tuesday 21st November 5.00 pm
Professor John Martin
British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Science, UCL
‘‘Influencing the institutions of the European Union
in the quest to decrease the burden of heart disease in Europe’’
Heart disease is the biggest killer in Europe. More women die of it than
of breast cancer. Doctors have worked together at the European level to
put into action a plan that would dramatically decrease death and
suffering from heart disease and decrease the economic cost to the
European Union, which is probably about 300 billion euros per year. The
plan has simple objectives: a target for blood pressure and cholesterol,
which will be every citizen’s right to achieve, and the abolition of
smoking. The European Society of Cardiology, representing the heart
doctors, met with the European Commission to plan joint action. Every
six months a different European country is President of the Council of
Ministers. This system was used by the doctors to bring the “Heart Plan
for Europe” to a meeting of all the European health ministers. In
particular, the Presidencies of Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg and Austria
worked in partnership with the doctors and the European Commission. This
is the first example of a professional body analysing an important social
and personal problem, constructing a solution independent of short term
political motivation, offering that solution to governments at the
European level and executing the solution to the problem.
John Martin became the British Heart Foundation Professor of
Cardiovascular Science in 1990 and moved this Chair to UCL in 1996. He now
directs the Centre. He is on the Board of the European Society of
Cardiology and is past Vice-President. He wrote the "Heart Plan for
Europe ", which gave rise to a statement from the Council of Ministers of
the European Union in June 2002. He served on the Home Office Animal
Procedures Committee from 1998 to 2006. He is Chairman of the British
Collaborative on Stem Cells and Repair of the Heart, and the ESC Task
Force on Stem Cells in the Heart. He is the Chairman of the Exploitation
Committee of the European Vascular Genomics Network (EVGN) www.evgn.org
This seminar will be chaired by Professor Sir Michael Marmot
This seminar will be held at UCL RSVP seminar attendance by 17/11/06
(indicating any special needs and for directions to the seminar room)
Email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 020 7679 8249 Drinks & snacks at 6pm after the
seminar.
You may access an audio recording of past seminars at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/iish/seminars.htm
|