It is with great pleasure that I am with you today on the occasion of the opening of the 15th Joint Cyprus-Greece Congress, which is co-organized by the Cardiology Societies of Cyprus and Greece.
It is the first face-to-face scientific meeting in the last three years, in the wake of the global health crisis and the economic, energy, environmental and political challenges that humanity has been called upon to face.
I would first of all like to thank the co-organizers, the Cyprus Cardiology Society and the Hellenic Cardiology Society for honoring every year their commitment to provide accurate information and high quality education to their members. Because with their cooperation they repeatedly demonstrate the importance of collective effort in the field of health. Especially in the field of Cardiology, which occupies a key position in every country's fight against non-communicable diseases, to which 74% of global mortality is attributed.
I especially thank you, my fellow Cardiology Specialists, both for your participation in the Congress and for the high sense of responsibility you bring towards your patients and towards the national health services, keeping the bar of quality, scientific information and collegiality high. I am convinced that this conference will also contribute to the continuation of the scientific dialogue on new developments in the field of cardiology and the best possible management of cardiac cases.
The management of cardiac diseases does not depend solely on medical practice, which is a particular challenge for any health system. Heart disease is a multifactorial and aetiologically heterogeneous disease caused mainly by the lifestyle of the sufferers and other exogenous factors that contribute to the exponential increase in the incidence and inevitably in the number of deaths from heart disease, which reaches 17 million per year.They are the first and leading cause of death and the number 1 threat to public health in every country.
The implementation of the biggest reform in our country in the health sector, the introduction of the GHS on 1 June 2019, opened new horizons in the field of health care delivery. Our highest priority is to strengthen the General Health System, to continuously improve practices and correct distortions where and when they exist, in order for it to operate in a highly functional, efficient and economically sustainable manner. In this way, we will ensure universal access for our citizens to high quality health services.
To this end, we look forward to working closely with all scientific societies in an effort to listen to their views and formulate appropriate policies to address challenges and weaknesses, with the sole aim of safeguarding public health and improving the quality of life of our fellow citizens. At the same time, we must focus on prevention and since 80% of heart diseases are preventable, prevention programmes must be among our priorities.We must also listen to the concerns of patients, whose "reasonable wishes" must be translated, where possible, into policies and serve as a compass for our decisions and actions. In 2019, the incidents of heart disease in Cyprus and Greece reached numbers reaching about 10% of the population of each country. The same percentage in parallel in the European Union was around 20%, which proves that we are working in the right direction. There is, however, room for further exploitation and implementation of innovative treatments and methods that will reduce mortality rates. Undoubtedly, and I am sure that everyone here in this distinguished audience agrees that we must take advantage of the manageable sizes of our countries , the accumulated multidisciplinary science at national , European and global levels to successfully lead both countries to the 2030 horizon and the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As the Ministry of Health of Cyprus, we look forward to making full use of the resources of the Thalia 2021-2027 programme to strengthen and develop research infrastructure in the territory and to promote research in the field of heart disease. We pledge to continue to support the country's medical and scientific community, welcoming initiatives such as today's.
The topics of today's conference are particularly innovative and represent a free exchange of views and expertise. The breadth and variety of the topics covered by the conference are undoubtedly a guarantee for its success.
In conclusion, I wish every success to the proceedings of the conference, which once again hosts leading scientists in the field of cardiology.
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