Brussels, Belgium – 8 August 2025 – The SHD Coalition is pleased to announce its recent feature in the Spanish leading newspaper El Confidencial. The article, titled “El corazón de Europa late a favor de las valvulopatías: la llamada urgente a la acción”, underscores the Coalition’s efforts to prioritise structural heart diseases within the European Union’s public health agenda.
The article elaborates on the alarming prevalence and impact of SHD on millions of Europeans, highlighting the need for coordinated and ambitious action plans. Despite their significant burden, these conditions remain underdiagnosed and underestimated, leading to avoidable hospitalisations, higher mortality rates, and substantial declines in the quality of life.
Rossina Funes from the Coalition Secretariat emphasised the structural factors contributing to the delayed detection and inequity in access to care for SHD. She pointed out that early detection has not been prioritised in routine clinical practice and symptoms are often mistaken for normal ageing processes, particularly in older adults—the most affected group. Furthermore, she noted the gender disparities in diagnosis and treatment access, affecting women disproportionately.
The article also highlights the Coalition’s recent high-level meetings with European Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi and various key political figures during the “SHD Coalition Advocacy Days”. These meetings focused on advocating for the integration of SHD priorities into the Council of EU Health Ministers (EPSCO) and building political support for including structural heart diseases in future European health strategies.
Dr. Jorge Solís, member of the Coalition, stressed the importance of a patient-centred approach, incorporating early prevention, diagnosis, and access to advanced therapies as fundamental pillars of any European strategy.
The Coalition urges European institutions to act decisively, investing in early detection, technological innovation, gender perspective, and patient-centred care to save lives and reduce healthcare costs.