The impact of Covid-19 is also felt on the heart: in the context of cardiovascular health, the diagnostic and therapeutic delay caused by the health emergency has not yet been fully recovered. If in 2021, in some cases, new diagnoses start to increase again, the first visits and follow-up visits are still much lower than those carried out in the period preceding the pandemic. The data from a survey conducted by IQVIA promoted by Sanofi, in collaboration with the Italian Foundation for the Heart, on the occasion of the World Heart Day which, like every year, occurs on September 29. “The message we are launching this year on the occasion of World Day reaffirms the importance of raising awareness among citizens and patients to take their cardiovascular health to heart and to contribute to it in an active way. Hence the sense of the “Use your Heart to stay connected with your Heart” campaign, an invitation to make healthy lifestyle choices, to keep your values monitored and to maintain a constant relationship with your doctor. This further investigation allows us to reiterate the need to find new models of care so that, even in emergency situations such as the one we have experienced, each patient can maintain an ongoing relationship of dialogue and trust with their doctor, also and especially remotely ”, he highlighted Emanuela Folco, President of the Italian Heart Foundation
The heart, before and after the pandemic
The researchers focused on patients with two heart problems: dyslipidemia, linked to metabolism and a high cardiovascular risk, and ischemic heart disease, including coronary artery disease and acute coronary syndrome. In Italy, more than 10 million people are affected by one of these two disorders and must be carefully monitored. If in the peak of the first wave of Covid-19 many hospital visits were lost, of which a good portion for heart disease, subsequently, in the second half of 2020 and in 2021, part of the checks and examinations were recovered. But not always and not all, as the survey reveals.
Heart disease, fewer visits and diagnoses
Considering only the cases of dyslipidemia and high cardiovascular risk – which concern 8.8 million Italians – in June 2021 there was an increase in diagnoses, with a + 3%, and in new treatments, with a + 10%, compared to same period of 2019. The data suggests on the one hand that part of the patients “lost” in 2020 have been traced and on the other an increase in new cases. This increase would also be signaled by the fact that at the same time, in general, there was a decrease in the first visits related to this disorder, with a good -19% compared to 2019, and in the follow-up visits, with a -29 %. Consequently, adherence to therapies is also lower and records a -5%.
The picture is even worse when we consider ischemic diseases. Also in 2021 the diagnosis and the prescription of new treatments is lower than in 2019, respectively by -5% and -16%. First visits and checkups peak with -23% and -30%, and adherence to therapies is 8% lower when compared with the pre-pandemic one. In short, we are not there yet.
Strengths and weaknesses
The study also shows that most doctors (about 90%) have taken steps to stay in contact by telephone, via whatsapp and with other digital tools with patients, especially younger ones. However, these spontaneous initiatives are obviously not sufficient to track down all patients, even those at risk and with new diagnoses, and to respond to their needs. For this reason, more than 60% of specialists want the definition of remote contact methods that are more structured and less entrusted to the operation of the individual. “We are aware of how much this period of great transformation can incentivize the patient to have a more active and participatory role in relation to their disease”, underlines Katia Massaroni, General Medicines Medical Head of Sanofi, “And we undertake to fully understand the needs of all the actors involved, to guarantee and improve the care of the doctor / patient so that there is always a continuous and trusting relationship, even remotely”. In this perspective, Sanofi renews its commitment to listening year after year, with the aim of gathering the new needs of the doctor and the patient and concretely help them in improving the treatment path.
Italian Foundation for the Heart
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