Cardiac arrhythmias are an increasingly common challenge in global healthcare. Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia and, over the past 30 years, it has been associated with increasing healthcare burden and patient mortality, in line with rising incidence and prevalence.1 Atrial fibrillation represents a growing global epidemic with prevalence expected to double by 2030.2
The Arrhythmia Alliance is a collaboration focused on increasing awareness of arrhythmia and providing wide-ranging support to help improve outcomes in cardiac rhythm disorders. In 2018, the Arrhythmia Alliance published a White Paper on arrhythmia.3 In this expert interview, Arrhythmia Alliance Founder, Trudie CA Lobban MBE and President, Professor John Camm, describe the aims, campaigns and collaborations of this alliance.
Q. Could you tell us about the Arrhythmia Alliance and its aims?
John Camm: Arrhythmia Alliance is an alliance between all the people who have an interest in cardiac arrhythmias. This includes everyone from patients, through to health service stakeholders and administrators, along with physicians, paramedical support teams, cardiac technicians and allies in the pharmaceutical and health education industries. The aim of Arrhythmia Alliance is to unite all of these parties together in a collaboration to achieve important objectives in cardiac rhythm care.
Q. What recent campaigns has the Arrhythmia Alliance been involved with?
Trudie Lobban: The collaborative nature of the Arrhythmia Alliance has supported numerous campaigns aimed at improving cardiac rhythm awareness and care. Perhaps the most successful campaign to date has beecompln ‘Know Your Pulse’ – an initiative aimed at patients that provides encouragement and support in monitoring the pulse as a way of detecting potential arrhythmia: ‘know your pulse, know your heart rhythm’.4 This campaign has been embraced by decision-makers – governments and parliaments – and patients across the globe, with notable involvement in Australia, Canada, the USA and throughout Europe. Through the ‘Know Your Pulse’ campaign, arrhythmia, particularly atrial fibrillation, has been detected in many people and thus contributed to the saving of lives.
The campaign ‘Defibs Save Lives’ champions the need to place automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public places.5 To date, this has resulted in the placement of over 3,000 AED units, leading to saved lives for people with arrhythmias. The reach has been wide, including the use of AEDs in police cars in the USA, and placement of AEDs across the UK.
Q. What will be the benefits of the partnership between the Arrhythmia Alliance and Touch Medical Media?
Trudie Lobban: We were delighted to partner with Touch Medical Media – expressing the collaborative nature of the Arrhythmia Alliance – to help bring education, greater awareness, information and support in advancing care of cardiac arrhythmia.
John Camm: The Arrhythmia Alliance is a global initiative, and our alliance with Touch Medical Media enables us to deliver important messages, campaigns and education to a wide audience, rapidly.
Q. How do you expect this partnership to evolve?
John Camm: The collaboration between the Arrhythmia Alliance and Touch Medical Media facilitates the dissemination of messages, education and support from centralised centres in two countries to a global audience.
Trudie Lobban: The collaboration encapsulates the ethos of the Arrhythmia Alliance and, as the partnership develops, we look forward to providing greater awareness, information, education and support to all parties involved in cardiac rhythm care.
