Why concentrate on cardiovascular disease?
Despite enormous efforts by researchers, pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, cardiovascular disease continues to be responsible for extensive morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. The tools physicians have today are simply inadequate to the task of effectively managing patients with diseases such as chronic heart failure (CHF), hypertension and stroke. Just taking CHF as an example, nearly five million Americans currently suffer from the disease, with about 400,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Sixty to seventy percent of these patients die within five years. More effective medicines and treatments are urgently needed to improve survival and quality of life for patients, and to significantly reduce the cost of caring for them.