The work of two years of the Task Force in charge of the new European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Respiratory Society (ERS) joint Clinical Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension has finally come to an end. The new guidelines were officially presented yesterday at the ESC Annual Congress in Barcelona and are now published on the European Society of Cardiology website as well as in the European Heart Journal. For the first time ever two patient representatives were included in the work of the task force writing the guidelines.
The ESC/ERS clinical guidelines can be downloaded from the European Heart Journal web page at this link
Commentary by Pisana Ferrari: It has been a great honour and an amazing experience for me to be included as a patient and patient representative in this Task Force, together with my former colleague from PHA Europe Gergely Meszaros, alongside some of the world’s top medical experts in PH. It was the very first time patient representatives were involved in the work on these guidelines. It is great to see that there is an increasing recognition, in this and other fields of medicine, of the important contribution that patients can give in terms of knowledge and experience. This also reflects the general trend in medicine towards more patient-centred care, the increased attention to the patient-doctor relationship, and the need for better communication and information exchanges as key factors for effective patient engagement and shared decision-making. A big step forward for ALL patients!
