A RANGE of new courses being developed at NUI Galway will be the first in Ireland on the prevention of cardiovascular illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
A partnership initiated by west of Ireland heart and stroke charity Croí, in collaboration with NUIG, HSE West and industrial partner Kerry Foods, is set to break new ground in medical education through the development of the new programmes.
Croí chief executive Neil Johnson told The Irish Times that the charity was born out of a need to upgrade cardiac services in the west in 1985, but with the successful development of services and the opening of a cardiac surgery department in Galway, they had moved into the area of prevention and health promotion, linking up with Imperial College London to develop initiatives and training programmes.
“Imperial College has designed the gold standard intervention programme. They identify people at risk of cardiovascular disease and invite them to participate in a prevention and lifestyle programme,” Mr Johnson said.
It had been demonstrated that this type of intensive intervention resulted in a reduction in cholesterol and blood pressure levels, early diagnosis of diabetes, weight reduction and a decrease in smoking, he said.
Imperial College has franchised the programme under the name My Action and it has been contracted by the NHS to provide the service in 15 locations in the UK. Croí approached the HSE West and MSD Ireland which committed to support a three-year My Action programme in Galway.
“We discovered at the end of the first cycle that our results actually exceeded those of the UK and subsequent programmes yielded similar results. Assessments of participants carried out one year on found we had again exceeded the UK outcomes,” said Mr Johnson.
For the past two years, Croí has been delivering the intervention programme in Galway. More than 800 people have benefited and the programme has demonstrated that it can reduce these risks.
“Going forward, one of our ideas was to develop a range of training programmes to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of health promotion and prevention,” Mr Johnson said. “The only masters programme in Europe is in Imperial College. Funding has been committed by the HSE, Croí, NUIG and the Kerry Group for five years to the development and delivery of a taught programme from certificate to masters level in preventative cardiology as well as continuing our prevention programme.”
