It represents a “silent threat” for 80 million over 60s: it is theabdominal aortic aneurysm, pathology diagnosed casually in 90% of cases. To make doctors and citizens aware of the importance of prevention and new treatments, Medtronic launches new European campaign #Here for You. The impact of the initiative is in the numbers: 40 stops in major hospitals in 9 countries (Holland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and the UK), over 600 healthcare professionals involved and a total of around 6 million people reached.
The tour, conducted with a futuristic multifunctional truck equipped with the most modern equipment – reads a note – has allowed the leading company in the healthcare technology sector to make special training sessions conducted on the simulator available to specializing doctors and to offer citizens important information to understand and deal with a pathology that today in the countries Western Europe affects more than 700,000 people and sees 222,000 new cases occur every year. It is estimated that in this geographical area about 80 million people aged 60 or over are at risk of this pathology, and that the event is the twelfth cause of death in Western society with a clear prevalence in subjects of male.
In Italy, abdominal aneurysms affect 84,000 people, with about 25,000 new cases diagnosed and 6,000 deaths every year. “It is a pathology that is assuming ever higher numbers – says Mauro Gargiulo, president of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (Esvs) and director of vascular surgery of the Irccs Policlinico Sant’Orsola in Bologna – due to the growth in the average age of the population and the largest number of abdominal diagnostic tests capable of bringing out an often silent pathology, since in the majority of cases it is completely asymptomatic, even if it puts the patient’s life at risk. % of cases entirely occasional, following tests carried out for other ailments or other pathologies”. On the contrary, “if the aneurysm becomes symptomatic – underlines Gargiulo – it means that it has now reached dimensions of risk or has even led to the rupture of the wall of the aorta, capable of causing particularly painful symptoms due to the pouring of blood into the interior of the abdominal cavity”.
“It is a sudden, violent symptomatology, at the abdominal level – describes Gargiulo – often at the level of the spine, and with pain that can also spread to the groin, legs or buttocks, sometimes accompanied by sudden sweating, rapid heartbeat, fainting into shock Abdominal aortic aneurysm it develops mainly in old age, on average around 72-75 years of age, and is more frequent in men than in women“. In addition to age and gender, the main risk factors for this pathology are family history, smoking and hypertension. And it is precisely in the presence of at least two of these risk factors that a consultation with a doctor is recommended or a specialist once you are over 65.
It arises from the importance of knowledge of the disease and its most modern therapies collaboration between Esvs and Medtronic in the #Here for You project, “a European initiative – explains Domenico De Paolis, Operating Unit Leader Aortic, Senior Business Director Western Europe & Emea Regionled Liaison of Medtronic – which supports the scientific community and residents with a training activity on treatment of this pathology and on the importance of technological innovation for the benefit of the clinical outcome.Always among the objectives was that of raising awareness among the public opinion and patients on the importance of early diagnosis to counteract a silent pathology, such as l ‘abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is associated with a high risk of mortality, reaffirming our mission to relieve pain, restore health and extend the lives of our patients.”
“The collaboration with Esvs – continues De Paolis – comes from afar and has always been based on scientific support and above all on the training of young vascular surgeons. We recently wanted to strengthen this collaboration by also supporting some innovative initiatives both on the training of doctors and on raising awareness of pathologies of the aorta. The #Here For You campaign is a case in point because it used a new formula that combines, for the first time ever, the traveling tour with a predominantly digital activity”.
Medtronic also announced a partnership con un technology incubator – continues the note – capable of developing a revolutionary solution in the treatment of pathologies affecting the aortic arch, which are currently very difficult to treat and without a clear standard procedure. Another is there exclusive partnership with the English company Cydar, which has developed an innovative angiography display system that also uses artificial intelligence to improve the clinical outcome of the endovascular procedure.
“Our stents – highlights De Paolis – have particular characteristics of durability, conformability and reliability capable of ensuring excellent results over the years and which science confirms do not have any side effects even 10 years after treatment”. Then there is SmartPlan, a system capable of remotely integrating the field service guaranteed by Medtronic specialist technicians. “A particular sector in which Medtronic is investing – continues the manager – is that which is not strictly related to the product, i.e. the one aimed at optimizing the patient’s journey in the best possible way, before, during and after treatment”. In fact, with SmartPlan, the physician can create a new patient case and securely upload and send the computed tomography images to Medtronic experts for their evaluation. Once the report has been completed and the related report produced, the technical team shares it directly with the doctor through a protected platform, in order to help the clinician in the most effective decision on treatment. All of this happens in a very short time, almost in real-time, and practically covering the whole world, even the most remote and least served areas by the commercial part of the company.
“There are several margins for improvement in relations with industry – concludes Gargiulo – starting with scientific partnerships, i.e. the possibility of being able to exploit companies like ours in order to be able to evaluate the short and long-term results of the devices that are placed available to try to define their real effectiveness. Our society can then represent an important element as regards the diffusion of knowledge of new technologies which sometimes follows other paths than the purely scientific ones. Also by companies, moreover, having scientific partners like our company with its guidelines and approvals can guarantee them objective evaluations of their products and their new technologies”.