Call for papers: join the scientific debate on cardiovascular disease and diabetes

The current policy landscape offers unique momentum for strengthening collective action on noncommunicable diseases. To stimulate discussion on the challenges and opportunities related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, the International Journal of Public Health and Public Health Reviews have opened a joint call for papers.

Authors are invited to submit Original Articles, Theory and Concept papers, Reviews, and Policy Briefs for the special issue “Strengthening the public health response to cardiovascular diseases and diabetes”. The call for papers is open until 15 January 2027. Submissions will be reviewed by an editorial board that includes two experts from JACARDI, Yhasmine Hamu and Edwin Wouters.

Developed in line with the JACARDI mission, the special issue seeks to foster actionable knowledge that advances effective, equitable, and sustainable responses. Its aim is to support healthier lives, more resilient health systems, and stronger commitment to tackling noncommunicable diseases.

Topics of interest, identified in collaboration with JACARDI, include:

• Primary prevention, including health literacy, awareness, and health promotion
• Screening of high-risk populations
• Integrated health pathways, including health care organization, patient self-management, and reintegration into the workforce
• Data infrastructure and digital technologies as drivers of evidence-informed decision-making and innovation
• Health system strengthening, with a focus on governance, financing, and service delivery
• Strategies to reduce health inequities and ensure that populations living in vulnerable situations are not left behind

Accepted papers will be published on a rolling basis in the online special issue.

Be part of the call and support the creation and dissemination of knowledge that strengthens our public health response to cardiovascular disease and diabetes!

For more information on the call visit the website of the International Journal of Public Health.

How JACARDI can support the implementation of the EU Safe Hearts Plan

Benedetta Armocida, coordinator of JACARDI, presented the Joint Action’s role in shaping screening and early detection approaches under the Safe Hearts Plan, during a dedicated webinar organized by the European Commission.

On 15 January 2026, the European Commission hosted the first stakeholder webinar dedicated to the Safe Hearts Plan, the EU’s first-ever cardiovascular health plan, adopted on 16 December 2025. The online event brought together nearly 500 stakeholders from across Europe and provided a key platform to exchange views on how to support the implementation of the Plan and its flagship initiatives [1].

The webinar [2] marked an important milestone in the roll-out of the Safe Hearts Plan, which aims to tackle cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the leading cause of mortality in the European Union, through coordinated action on prevention, early detection and screening, and treatment, care and rehabilitation, while addressing cross-cutting challenges such as data and digitalisation, research and innovation, and health inequalities.

Opening the meeting, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Olivér Várhelyi, underlined the urgency of action and the importance of collaboration with stakeholders to turn the Plan into concrete results.

“Cardiovascular diseases remain Europe’s number one killer, placing a growing burden on our health systems, societies and economies. With the Safe Hearts Plan, we now have a strong policy tool at EU level, but its success will depend on close cooperation with Member States and stakeholders to make it a reality,” said Commissioner Várhelyi.

Supporting early detection and screening

During the webinar, the coordinators of key Joint Actions, JACARDI and JA PreventNCD, presented how their work contributes to the implementation of the Safe Hearts Plan. Dr Benedetta Armocida, coordinator of JACARDI, highlighted the Joint Action’s strong alignment with Pillar 2 of the Plan: early detection and screening, including the flagship initiative on an EU Protocol on Health Checks for CVDs.

JACARDI brings together 21 countries and 81 partners, working to translate EU priorities into concrete, country-level implementation. In particular, Work Package 8 on screening high-risk populations, led by Hanna Tolonen and Luigi Palmieri, is developing common protocols and tools to support Member States in the design, organisation and sustainability of effective screening programmes.

“We are testing and implementing practical solutions that can support the Safe Hearts Plan on the ground. Our pilot projects on early detection and screening aim to generate evidence and tools that help Member States reach high-risk populations, while embedding equity and sustainability across all activities. The aim is to provide further evidence and the result of our pilots to support the implementation of the European plan,” said Dr Armocida.

In practice, JACARDI is implementing 19 pilot projects focused on screening for CVDs and diabetes across different European countries, assessing the feasibility of diverse screening approaches. The Joint Action has also developed an online risk assessment tool and decision guide, supporting professionals in selecting appropriate risk prediction methods.

Addressing inequalities is a core priority for JACARDI, fully aligned with the Safe Hearts Plan. Across its 143 pilot projects, the Joint Action promotes equity and diversity, targeting both the general population and high-risk groups, with a focus on integrated care pathways, self-management and social participation.

The webinar also showcased the strong alignment between the Safe Hearts Plan and other EU initiatives. Knut Jønsrud, project manager of JA PreventNCD, emphasised the importance of addressing key risk factors and reducing social inequalities through a life-course approach.

“Several flagship initiatives of the Safe Hearts Plan, such as modernising tobacco control legislation and strengthening health literacy, are closely aligned with our work. A people-centred, equity-focused approach and cross-sectoral collaboration are essential to achieving lasting impact,” said Jønsrud.

A coordinated EU response

Antonio Parenti, director for Public Health, Cancer and Human Security in the Directorate General for Human and Food Security of the European Commission (DG SANTE), stressed the scale of the challenge posed by CVDs and the need for decisive, coordinated action at EU level.

“CVDs cost the EU more than €280 billion every year. Without strong and coordinated action, this burden will continue to grow, affecting future generations, health systems and economic resilience. The Safe Hearts Plan is our collective response to this challenge,” Parenti stated.

He highlighted the Plan’s three pillars and its ten flagship initiatives, designed to improve population health, foster innovation and support sustainable healthcare systems. Prevention remains a cornerstone of the Plan, as nearly 80% of CVDs can be prevented through lifestyle changes, alongside strengthened, patient-centred and multidisciplinary care [3].

Next steps

The European Commission will now collect and analyse the feedback and ideas shared by stakeholders during the webinar. A second stakeholder webinar is planned for the second half of 2026, ensuring continued dialogue as the Safe Hearts Plan moves into its implementation phase.

For JACARDI, the webinar confirmed the relevance of Joint Actions as key instruments to support EU health policies and demonstrated how collaborative, evidence-based approaches can help reduce the burden of CVDs across Europe.

[1] About the Safe Hearts Plan flagship initiatives

Adopted in December 2025, the EU Safe Hearts Plan is underpinned by ten flagship initiatives designed to deliver clear EU added value across prevention, care and innovation, while supporting Member States in addressing cardiovascular diseases in a coordinated and sustainable way:d

• A lifelong, personalised and digitally enabled prevention programme – ‘EU cares for your heart’
• Empowering consumers through information on food processing in the EU
• Modernising tobacco control legislation
• The Commission will examine which appropriate tools, including possible financial actions, could be deployed to support/fund public health actions in the field of primary prevention and stimulate food reformulation and healthier consumer choices
• Proposal for a Council recommendation on vaccination against respiratory infections as a preventive measure for cardiovascular diseases
• EU protocol on health checks for cardiovascular diseases
• Proposal for a Council recommendation on personalised treatment and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases
• Incubator for innovation and integration of AI and digital technologies in cardiovascular healthcare
• EU cardiovascular health inequalities dashboard
• Cardiovascular Disease Research and Innovation Roadmap

[2] Stakeholder Webinar the Safe Hearts Plan – Meeting documents
[3] Questions and answers on the EU Safe Hearts Plan

A defining CVH moment in Europe: The Commission announced the Safe Hearts Plan

“When Europe acts together, we do not simply improve systems, we improve lives,” points out Benedetta Armocida, Coordinator of JACARDI, as the European Union’s Cardiovascular Health Plan is launched. At a time when cardiovascular disease remains Europe’s leading cause of death, this moment marks a collective step toward strengthening heart health across the continent.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of death and disability in Europe, as confirmed by the newly released OECD report “The State of Cardiovascular Health in the European Union“. CVD claims 1.7 million lives each year, more than cancer and diabetes combined, and affects an estimated 62 million people. CVDs also contribute significantly to disability, early retirement, and absenteeism, lower the quality of life and reduce life expectancy, according to data from the European Commission [1], [2], [3].

The total economic burden of CVD in the EU is estimated at EUR 282 billion annually, around 2% of GDP, and significantly higher than that of cancer. The OECD report highlights stark geographic, gender and socio-economic disparities in cardiovascular outcomes and access to care, reinforcing the need for coordinated EU-level action. It also acknowledges JACARDI’s input to the report, and references JACARDI’s 4C Framework and pilot actions in France and Spain.

Bearing that in mind, the European Commission’s launch of the Cardiovascular Health Plan, under the name Safe Hearts Plan, marks a decisive moment for public health in the region. JACARDI strongly welcomes this Plan, as coordinated European action is essential to reduce the number of people falling ill with cardiovascular diseases, and to prevent premature deaths for those with existing conditions or risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

“The launch of the Cardiovascular Health Plan marks a pivotal moment for Europe’s public health. JACARDI welcomes this initiative, recognizing the crucial role of Joint Actions in fostering collaboration among countries, experts, and stakeholders. By working together, sharing knowledge, and aligning efforts, we can ensure that advances in prevention, care, and innovation in cardiovascular health truly reach all communities, leaving no one behind,” notes Prof Graziano Onder, Scientific Coordinator of JACARDI.

The Plan arrives at a critical time. For too long, CVD and diabetes have lacked the political visibility their burden demands. The CVH Plan opens the door to a new European approach that puts prevention first, strengthens early detection and screening, and promotes equity and integrated, patient-centred care across health systems. For JACARDI, this initiative is an essential step towards making the healthy choice the easy and default choice for citizens across Europe.

“The CVH Plan is a decisive step forward, and JACARDI is proud to contribute with its experience and technical expertise. Our work shows that no cardiovascular strategy can be effective without putting equity at the centre, addressing the gaps linked to income, geography, education and gender that still shape health outcomes across Europe. We look forward to supporting the implementation of a Plan that has the potential to change lives across the region”, explains Dr Benedetta Armocida, coordinator of JACARDI.

The CVH Plan is needed as fragmented efforts can no longer address challenges that are inherently interconnected. “Prevention, early detection, treatment, rehabilitation, digital innovation, community engagement, these elements only create real impact when they are aligned and mutually reinforcing”, adds Dr Armocida.

Equally important is the improvement of data collection and use, ensuring that high-quality, reliable information drives policy decisions, guides clinical practice and allows progress to be measured transparently across countries, as highlighted in a recent policy paper published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, developed jointly by the Joint Action on Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes (JACARDI), the Joint Action Prevent Non-Communicable Diseases (JA PreventNCD), and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe), [4].

“Robust and accessible data are essential to understand where inequalities arise, to identify people at risk earlier and to ensure timely, high-quality care across Europe. Strengthening data systems, from availability and quality to interoperability and sharing, is key to improving early detection, screening programmes and continuity of care”, says Dr Héctor Bueno, co-leader of the working group on data availability, quality, accessibility and sharing from JACARDI.

Through its multidisciplinary network, technical expertise and strong partnerships, JACARDI stands ready to support the successful rollout of the Safe Hearts Plan. The Joint Action will continue to contribute practical knowledge on prevention, governance, data systems and quality of care, building on lessons learned from other European health initiatives and aligning closely with the shared vision set out by the European cardiovascular community.

Joint Actions are more than projects, they are engines of collaboration. JACARDI can serve as a bridge between countries, stakeholders, and other EU initiatives, helping to translate the CVH Plan into coordinated, coherent, and sustainable action across Europe.

JACARDI is generating concrete insights on equity, early detection, integrated care, digital tools, data systems, and workforce capacity. These lessons, grounded in practice and validated across diverse health systems, can inform the plan’s priorities, standards, and operational frameworks. JACARDI remains fully committed to supporting the European Commission in prioritizing the Cardiovascular Health Plan and promoting its effective implementation across Member States, ensuring that every step forward translates into meaningful impact for people’s health.

The Safe Hearts Plan at a glance:

• Prioritises prevention as one of its main pillars
• Sets clear targets, including reducing mortality related to cardiovascular disease by 25% by 2035
• Encourages Member States to develop or implement national cardiovascular health plans by 2027
• Emphasises reducing health inequalities and improving access to healthcare
• Supports an EU protocol on health checks to shift the focus from treatment to prevention
• Addresses lifestyle risks, including unhealthy diets, ultra-processed foods, and smoking

Read the full European Commission Safe Hearts Plan here.


References:
[1] OECD (2025), The State of Cardiovascular Health in the European Union, OECD Publishing, Paris,
[2] Cardiovascular health; European Commission
[3] Fighting cardiovascular disease – a blueprint for EU action, June 2020. European Heart Network and the European Society of Cardiology.
[4] Benedetta Armocida, Hanna Tolonen, Ivo Rakovac, Beatrice Formenti, Jill Farrington, Allison Ekberg, Hector Bueno, Giovanni Capelli, Silvia Francisci, Morten S. Frydensberg, Ane Fullaondo, Linda Granlund, Yhasmine Hamu Azcarate, Torben F. Hansen, Emil Høstrup, Tomi Mäki-Opas, Luigi Palmieri, Markku Peltonen, Valentina Possenti, Marco Silano, Gundo Weiler, Kremlin Wickramasinghe, Edwin Wouters, Knut-Inge Klepp, Graziano Onder, Gauden Galea, Strengthening non-communicable diseases monitoring systems in Europe through a multistakeholder collaborative approach: a key priority for advancing data-driven policymaking, The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, Volume 61, 2026, 101553, ISSN 2666-7762,

Croí’s Healthy Hearts Club: empowering patients in heart disease self-management

Croí, the heart and stroke charity based in the west of Ireland, is leading one of Ireland’s pilot projects as part of JACARDI. This pilot, called the Healthy Hearts Club, focuses on patient self-management for those recovering from heart events, such as heart attacks. It aims to help individuals manage long-term health risks like high blood pressure and low physical activity. This project builds on Croí’s experience in heart disease prevention and rehabilitation and provides a crucial support system to patients after their initial cardiac rehabilitation.

A Sustainable Model for Long-Term Health

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and many patients face challenges in maintaining the positive changes achieved during rehabilitation. The Healthy Hearts Club offers a community-based model to help patients continue managing their heart health after formal rehabilitation ends.

“Cardiac rehabilitation is life-saving, but sustaining those changes is key to long-term health,” says Dr. Susan Connolly, Consultant Cardiologist at University Hospital Galway, who is a co-investigator on the project. “The Healthy Hearts Club provides ongoing support and helps patients stay on track with their health goals.”

The programme involves up to 160 patients, all of whom have completed cardiac rehabilitation through the through the Irish health service in Galway. Participants engage in six months of support, including regular nurse check-ins and group workshops on exercise, nutrition, emotional wellbeing, and heart disease risk factors. This ongoing support aims to help participants integrate these healthy habits into their daily lives.

Supporting Long-Term Change through Personalised Care

The Healthy Hearts Club emphasizes peer support, personalized care, and group activities tailored to the participants’ needs. By joining the programme soon after rehabilitation, patients are given the tools to continue the progress they’ve made, ensuring sustainable change over the long term.

“We believe that empowering people with the knowledge and tools to manage their health is essential for sustainable, person-centered care,” says Dr. Lisa Hynes, Head of Health Programmes at Croí. “This initiative aligns perfectly with our commitment to delivering innovative prevention and self-management programmes.”

In addition to in-person support, Croí will explore the use of digital health tools to further enhance the programme. Building on the success of Croí’s previous online self-management programme, the Healthy Hearts Club will assess how digital solutions can support long-term heart health.

A European Approach to Heart Disease Prevention

One of JACARDI’s goals is to integrate best practices across the entire patient journey—from screening and self-management to integrated care and workforce reintegration. The Healthy Hearts Club is a key component of this effort, with the programme’s evaluation aiming to develop scalable models for improving heart disease management across Europe.

“We’re excited to see how this project evolves and contributes to the broader European conversation on heart health,” says Dr. Connolly. “The insights we gain will help improve the long-term care and outcomes for patients.”

A Collaborative Effort for a Healthier Future

Croí’s leadership in the Healthy Hearts Club is part of the wider JACARDI programme, which connects Irish experts with a pan-European network of professionals working to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Dr. Hynes adds, “This collaboration with the HSE and European partners is a unique opportunity to learn from each other and translate research into real-world improvements in care.”

A major step forward: Basque country rolls out integrated heart failure care model

A new pilot project has recently been launched in the Basque country as part of JACARDI, featuring an integrated, value-based care pathway for people with heart failure. This pilot is aligned with JACARDI’s broader mission to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and diabetes across Europe by strengthening coordinated care, enhancing health literacy, and scaling best practices. 

Within JACARDI, Biosistemak represents the Basque country as an affiliated entity, co-leading communication and dissemination activities, supporting methodological frameworks for European pilots, contributing to health literacy initiatives, and leading the deployment of the heart failure pathway. This includes conducting a comprehensive needs assessment on the European level.

On 27 November, at the launch event organized at Cruces University Hospital in Barakaldo, Osakidetza – the public health care service of the Basque country – presented the new value-based integrated care pathway for heart failure, after two years of joint development with Biosistemak and Osakidetza’s Care Integration and Chronicity Service (SIAC). Throughout the entire development process, Biosistemak provided methodological support on pathway design, including the adaptation of care pathways and resources, the development of evaluation frameworks, the integration of technological requirements, and the preparation of awareness raising actions and training plans for professionals. The result is a comprehensive and coordinated care model that improves outcomes and quality of life for people living with heart failure while ensuring long-term sustainability.

During the event, Biosistemak researcher Yhasmine Hamu highlighted the importance of the extensive multidisciplinary collaboration behind the initiative. Over two years, professionals from family and community medicine, hospital care, nursing, pharmacy, and management collaborated to create a model that responds to real patient needs and incorporates sex- and gender-based perspectives. Presentations also highlighted innovative solutions, new corporate tools, and lessons learned on improving communication, standardising care, and defining indicators for continuous improvement.

The jointly developed pathway covers the entire care cycle for people with heart failure, from initial suspicion of the condition to hospitalisation, discharge, and ongoing follow-up in both primary and specialised settings. It is designed to align the perspectives of patients, professionals, and the general population. For patients, the model organises interventions and responsibilities in one integrated system to reduce morbidity and mortality and strengthen self-care. For professionals, it offers a clear overview of actions to be taken, decision-support tools, and a framework that promotes coordination and reduces variability. On a societal level, the model improves population health by enhancing scientific knowledge and reinforcing the sustainability of health systems.

The success of this pilot is a perfect example of how JACARDI supports Member States in adopting evidence-based and scalable care models for chronic disease management. Through its leadership in this initiative, Biosistemak contributes to strengthening integrated care and advancing cardiovascular health both within the Basque country and across Europe.

Can artificial intelligence help shape smarter cardiovascular policies across Europe?

What if policymakers across Europe had faster, clearer and more reliable data to guide decisions in cardiovascular health? Addressing that challenge, one of JACARDI’s pilot teams from CNIC presented their work at the ESC Digital & AI Summit 2025, showcasing AI innovations designed to turn evidence into actionable policy.

At the European Society of Cardiology Digital & AI Summit 2025, researchers Fatima Sanchez-Cabo, Juan Ignacio Alvarez Arenas, Daniel Jiménez Carretero, from the Computational Systems Biomedicine group at CNIC (Spanish Cardiovascular Research Center), and active members of JACARDI’s Working Group on Data Availability, Quality, Accessibility and Sharing, presented their poster: CARMINA: Optimizing low-parameter language models for high-quality cardiovascular research assistance. The work was featured in the session From bench to bedside: the potential roles of large language models in cardiovascular medicine, moderated by Professor Lis Neubeck, from Edinburgh Napier University; and Associate Professor Johan Verjans MD PhD FESC FRACP, from the University of Adelaide.

Why does this matter?

Within JACARDI’s Pilot 57, CNIC is developing EUROCARDIAB, a pioneering federated data platform integrating cardiovascular health indicators from across Europe. One of its key features is a CVD impact simulator that models how changes in risk factors could reduce event prevalence, providing policy makers with reliable, data-driven scenarios for national planning.

A dedicated web front-end will share these insights and will also host CARMINA (Cardiovascular And Research-driven Molecular Insight with Novel Assistant), an AI-powered research assistant designed to support specialized cardiovascular research. CARMINA will orchestrate the Intelligent Policy Agent (IPA), enabling autonomous trend analysis, computational modeling of interventions, and the creation of clear, actionable policy briefings for decision-makers in cardiology and diabetology.

This year’s ESC Digital & AI Summit motto, “Prepare for the next frontier in cardiovascular care”, aligns strongly with JACARDI’s overarching mission: accelerating patient outcomes and transforming clinical workflows across Europe through better data, smarter tools and more equitable care pathways.

Today, accurate, comparable and timely data on cardiovascular disease and diabetes remain limited, yet this information is essential for developing targeted policies that reduce disease burden, improve healthcare for all citizens and help close persistent inequalities.

The ESC Digital & AI Summit remains a key meeting point for global leaders, innovators and technology experts shaping the digital transformation of cardiovascular care, and pilots like this one from CNIC demonstrate how JACARDI is already turning that vision into meaningful, data-driven progress across Europe.

Learn more about CARMINA here.

Slovenia’s breakthroughs in the fight against diabetes

This year’s National Diabetes Conference in Slovenia placed a strong spotlight on JACARDI and the country’s three national pilot projects addressing diabetes. These initiatives are designed to:

• Identify individuals with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes or intermediate hyperglycemia, especially among vulnerable groups who rarely access preventive services.
  
• Increase participation in primary-care education programs among people already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or intermediate hyperglycemia.
  
• Boost attendance in the national diabetic retinopathy screening program, a crucial step in preventing diabetes-related blindness.

Slovenia is well aware of its key challenges in diabetes care and is actively addressing them through the nearly complete CARE4DIABETES project and its ongoing work within JACARDI. Both efforts are fully aligned with the country’s National Diabetes Plan, ensuring that strategic intent is translated into concrete action.

Why JACARDI matters for Slovenia

In an interview conducted during the conference, Dr Jelka Zaletel (NIJZ Slovenia) explained why JACARDI is uniquely important for the country. Slovenia knows its main barriers in managing the diabetes burden: many individuals with type 2 diabetes remain undiagnosed; those who would benefit most from preventive visits or early detection often do not enter the healthcare system; and attendance in primary-care education programs remains lower than expected.

The JACARDI pilot projects help tackle these issues head-on:

• Pilot 1: Developing new, community-based approaches to reach people unlikely to attend preventive check-ups.
  
• Pilot 2: Understanding and addressing why individuals with type 2 diabetes do not participate in primary-care education programs—and redesigning these programs accordingly.
  
• Pilot 3: Improving uptake of the national diabetic retinopathy screening program. Although 30,000 people currently attend screenings, an estimated 150,000 Slovenians live with diabetes. JACARDI helps uncover where the gaps lie and how to close them.
  

A fourth pilot: Strengthening cardiovascular care

These efforts are embedded in Slovenia’s National Diabetes Plan, supported by clear action plans. The National Diabetes Conference, held every November, is one such action, providing an annual moment to share progress and results from JACARDI.

Slovenia is also implementing a fourth JACARDI pilot project focused on cardiovascular health. It aims to harmonize approaches across rehabilitation centers treating patients after acute coronary events—an area where attendance is also suboptimal. This work aligns with the Ministry of Health’s decision to develop a National Strategy for Cardiovascular Health, reinforcing how JACARDI can support strategic planning beyond diabetes.

Relive the Conference

A mood video from the event captures the atmosphere at the venue. Although only speakers and roundtable participants were physically present, the online turnout was impressive, with more than 170 remote attendees.

You can also watch the full interview with Dr Jelka Zaletel, where she explores in more depth how Slovenia leverages JACARDI to address long-standing gaps in diabetes and cardiovascular care.

Five EU initiatives unite to scale health literacy action to tackle NCDs

A powerful spirit of collaboration marked this year’s European Public Health Conference held in Helsinki from 12 to 14 November: five major European projects – JACARDI, JA PreventNCD, PIA, careGIVR and PREVENTIA – jointly hosted a high-level workshop during the conference. This collaborative session demonstrated how cross-project synergy is the key to accelerating effective, inclusive health literacy strategies across the continent to curb the rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through more accessible, inclusive and evidence-based prevention strategies.

The workshop, titled “8.H. Round table: Health Literacy in Action: Innovative and Inclusive Approaches from European Joint Initiatives”, brought together leading EU-funded initiatives involving over 100 partner institutions across 24 countries. Discussions centered on the critical challenge of reaching vulnerable groups – such as migrants, young people and populations in disadvantaged settings, who remain disproportionately affected by low health literacy and NCDs.

The session emphasized two core outcomes for participants:

• Shared approaches: Understanding how five major European projects integrate health literacy into diverse public health systems, leveraging strong equity and diversity lenses.
• Roadmap principles: Highlighting the common goals and strategies these initiatives have defined to strengthen health literacy action across different European contexts.

The JACARDI health literacy team – coordinated by Santé publique France and Biosistemak Research Institute, Basque Country, Spain – used the platform to showcase its progress in building measurable health literacy impact against cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes (DM) risks and other NCDs across Europe.

The JACARDI WP6 Health Literacy team presented the extensive work completed during the first two years of the project aimed at improving health literacy and raising awareness of CVD and DM risks at both individual and societal levels. This work includes mapping existing health literacy development activities across EU countries and implementing 25 codesigned pilot projects across 13 countries.

These projects are implemented following participatory processes where key stakeholders and target groups are involved from the very beginning. Their approaches in action include applying a common framework for systematically evaluating the equity and diversity lens across pilots. 

The roadmap principles guiding this work rely on a shared 12-step implementation framework, ensuring consistency across all 143 JACARDI pilots and reinforcing the integration of sustainability plans to enable future scale-up. Additionally, JACARDI assesses health literacy initiatives at multiple levels of interventions, project teams, and work packages to support continuous learning and improvement.

Through the European Public Health Conference workshop, the JACARDI team showcased its commitment to ensure health literacy initiatives reach everyone, regardless of background, language, or level of literacy. By bringing together JA PreventNCD, PIA, careGIVR, and PREVENTIA in a single collaborative session, JACARDI created a unique space to align methodologies, identify synergies, and strengthen a connected European approach to preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

During the session, participants explored how projects are embedding cultural diversity into their methodologies and activities to better reach vulnerable groups and improve health equity across Europe. They also examined how inclusive health literacy strategies can support health systems in combating misinformation and disinformation, particularly in culturally and linguistically diverse communities disproportionately affected by it, and what lessons can be drawn from applying different approaches to health literacy across populations, settings, and system levels. They also discussed how this diversity can inform and strengthen national and EU-level policy.The insights generated in Helsinki will help shape the next phase of Europe’s health promotion agenda, ensuring that individuals are not only informed but empowered to understand, act, appraise, and apply health information.

Mitja Lainscak: My hope is that we can intervene earlier for more patients

“It’s important that the JACARDI initiative and its outcomes gain visibility within the scientific community”, stresses Mitja Lainscak, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Ljubljana and member of JACARDI’s Scientific Advisory Board. As a clinical practitioner and researcher, he anticipates that collaboration will be one of the most important positive outcomes of the project, along with effects going from the regional or national level to the international level.

What significance does JACARDI hold for you and your organization?

I think that the organisations involved really appreciate being part of such a large initiative, trying to bring together efforts in the field of cardiovascular medicine and diabetes and to stimulate some potential cross-talk between the partners. The consortium is hosting more than 140 pilot projects with some of them related within or across the field.

One of the main benefits of an initiative like this, is that people talk to each other and realise that they can collaborate, so that their efforts can be transferred from the regional or national level to the international level.

How do you see JACARDI’s role in tackling the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes in Europe?

Our society is aging and that’s an unavoidable reality. Advances in medicine have played a significant role in this trend. In addition, improvements in detection tools and the capabilities of our healthcare system have enhanced our ability to identify patients more effectively.

I hope we will identify more people at risk, as well as those with single or multiple conditions. Early detection is crucial because it allows us to start treatment earlier in the course of the disease, rather than waiting until it has progressed and caused irreversible damage. My hope is that we can intervene earlier for more patients.

How do you think JACARDI will influence future collaboration on cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevention in Europe?

JACARDI is a Joint Action, supported by the European Union and recognised by the scientific community. In a previous newsletter, I read a message from Professor Thomas F. Lüscher, the President of European Society of Cardiology highlighting the importance of JACARDI in shaping the future of cardiovascular disease and diabetes management through collaborative, data-driven care for the benefit of patients. I believe a similar message will come from the diabetes community. So, as said previously, having like-minded experts in the same room encourages discussion and cross-fertilisation of ideas. I anticipate that participants will begin to collaborate outside of the JACARDI framework, which I see as a positive outcome.

The European Society of Cardiology and the diabetes associations are already aligned, and I believe JACARDI has a crucial role to play in promoting future collaboration.

It’s important that the JACARDI initiative and its outcomes, such as pilot results, gain visibility in the scientific community. Researchers need to present their findings at conferences and submit their work for publication. This is essential to demonstrate that the funding received has been used effectively. Ultimately, it’s important to ensure that the investments made produce tangible results.

Based on your experience as a cardiologist, what do you consider the most critical factors in improving data-driven healthcare outcomes?

This is an extremely important question. Speaking from a national perspective, as someone from Slovenia, I’d like to extend this to an international context.

I believe that the lack of IT support for collecting data is a crucial issue. Slovenia is a small country with 2 million inhabitants and 14 hospitals, but we lack a unified IT system across these institutions. Although all hospitals are publicly owned and we have a single insurance provider, we struggle to collect comprehensive epidemiological data. We have a national hospitalization database, but it doesn’t give you the granularity of patient data.

The first necessary step would be the development of IT solutions, possibly using artificial intelligence, to extract the necessary data from medical records, particularly in terms of epidemiology. In my opinion, we still lack accurate figures for many diseases, both in Slovenia and across Europe.

Without this data, we cannot fully understand the scope of the problem, making it difficult to effectively allocate resources for patient management. I believe that the JACARDI pilots will showcase best practices in addressing this epidemiological data gap.

In terms of how JACARDI’s research and initiatives could support lasting, practical changes in clinical practice across Europe, particularly in Slovenia, I anticipate that most findings will primarily reflect the pilot country’s specific context . However, some lessons can be adapted across borders. Each country involved will focus on its specific challenges, but I believe that through meetings like this, where participants are encouraged to share their work, others can identify relevant lessons.

The perspective of the Advisory Board members is crucial in this process, as we aim to integrate ideas from different work packages that may not always communicate effectively with each other. This collaboration is essential.

Dr. Mitja Lainscak is a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Ljubljana and conducts clinical practice and research at the Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital Murska Sobota, Slovenia. He is the Director of the Slovenian Research Agency and his clinical and research interest is cardiovascular medicine with particular emphasis on heart failure, pharmacotherapy, and metabolism with body composition. He has published more than 170 papers and holds an Executive Committee member position at the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.  

Learn more about Mitja Lainscak and his work and connect on LinkedIn.

CaregIVR: How virtual reality is transforming caregiver health

CaregIVR addresses the critical challenge posed to informal caregivers who support individuals with chronic illnesses, particularly cardiovascular conditions. This role can place a heavy emotional and physical burden on caregivers, often negatively impacting their own well-being.

The project explores how Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) can be utilized as an innovative digital tool to support cardiovascular health promotion among these informal caregivers. CaregIVR’s mission is to develop immersive VR content that provides educational and relaxing experiences aimed at helping to reduce stress, promote healthy habits, and raise awareness about self-care.

This EU-funded Action Grant launched on 1 November 2023, and is scheduled to conclude on 31 October 2026.

CaregIVR employs a human-centred approach to digital health. By focusing specifically on the mental and physical health of caregivers, the project contributes not only to individual well-being but also to the development of more sustainable and inclusive healthcare systems.

Substantial challenges the project must navigate include adapting content to different caregiver profiles, ensuring accessibility and usability of the technology, and measuring the real impact of VR on emotional and physical health indicators.

Since its launch, CaregIVR has completed several foundational milestones:

• Comparative Analysis and State of Art Report: A report was produced in April 2024 detailing cardiovascular diseases, relevant country regulations, and systematic analyses of the condition of informal caregivers.
• Focus Group and Design Work: A Focus Group discussing the app and IVR design was held in June 2024.

Training: Training sessions for caregivers using IVR equipment and software are taking place between September 2025 and April 2026.

The core strategic impact of CaregIVR is achieved through experiential learning facilitated by IVR technology. The IVR is developed to simulate the sensory and emotional realities of living with limitations after a stroke. Through this technology, caregivers can gain experiential insight, moving beyond clinical descriptions to achieve a more embodied understanding of symptoms and behaviours. The content is expected to reduce stress, promote healthy habits, and raise awareness about self-care among caregivers.

Professor Helena José, Coordinator of the Action Grant CaregIVR and President of ESSATLA, notes that caregivers often express deep commitment to their loved ones but “struggle to truly grasp what the person is experiencing”. The project was developed to address this gap by using immersive virtual reality.

A Polish participant in an Informal Caregivers’ Focus Group shared the difficulty of providing support when unable to fully understand the patient’s reality: “The hardest thing for me was understanding what my husband felt… some of the symptoms are difficult for me as a healthy person to imagine”. This participant reflected, “Today I realized that I am constantly trying to pull him back into my reality. Or maybe it should be the other way around – should I try to enter his world?”. The IVR simulation aims to assist in stepping into the patient’s world, helping caregivers better understand their perspective.

Whether you are a healthcare professional, caregiver, researcher, or simply interested in new approaches to informal care, you are invited to join the growing community. The final goal is to share, connect, and help co-create technological solutions with real human impact.

JACARDI’s synergies with Action Grants: reducing the cardiovascular burden together

The five Action Grants – CaregIVR, PERFECTO, Preventia, PROVIDE, RESIL-Card – and JACARDI are all anchored in the urgent mission of tackling the burden of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), Europe’s leading cause of death, which is especially timely as the European Commission develops the European Cardiovascular Health Plan (CVH Plan). This partnership is built upon the understanding that up to 80% of premature CVD deaths are preventable, and aims to strengthen cohesive EU-level action. 

The overarching goal uniting JACARDI and these projects is the comprehensive reduction of the immense public health burden caused by Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), particularly Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and diabetes. This is pursued through a shared commitment to developing and promoting the implementation of validated best practices throughout the entire patient journey.

Within the implementation domain, projects focused on early detection, such as PERFECTO and PROVIDE, are collaborating with JACARDI WP8 to develop standardized screening protocols. Addressing health system continuity, RESIL-Card partners with JACARDI WP9 to specifically build resilience in cardiovascular care pathways, ensuring high-quality care continuity during crises.

Key expected outcomes include strengthening patient-centered approaches, utilizing novel digital tools like predictive algorithms by PROVIDE and immersive technology by CaregIVR, and developing tools such as the resilience assessment toolkit by RESIL-Card. 

Synergies around equity are strengthened by sharing JACARDI’s “4Cs” Framework, which helps projects like CaregIVR and Preventia ensure targeted outreach to vulnerable populations. Both Preventia and PROVIDE showcase the central role of innovative digital tools in prevention efforts. 

By coordinating our approach across technical work packages among these projects, we maximize collective impact and ensure that project outcomes translate effectively into actionable policy, creating roadmaps that support the scaling up of experiences at the national and regional levels.Ultimately, this unified collaboration contributes to promoting prevention, early detection, education, and sustained behavioral change for a healthier future.

A model of excellence in the Marche Region: turning a regional best practice into a shared European achievement

The Marche Region stands as a European model of excellence in managing diabetes. Its participation in JACARDI builds on more than a decade of coordinated innovation, legislation, and stakeholder engagement.

The foundation was laid with Regional Law No. 9/2015, which established a network of Diabetes Centres connected by a shared electronic record and coordinated through the Regional Diabetes Committee. Led by the Marche Regional Health Agency (Agenzia Regionale Sanitaria – ARS), this committee unites specialists, family doctors, pediatricians, and patient associations to ensure equal access and consistent quality of care. Recognized by the European Commission’s Best Practice Portal and the Italian National Agency for Regional Healthcare Services (Agenzia Nazionale per i servizi sanitari Regionali – AGENAS), this network became a reference model for chronic disease management.

When the European Union launched JACARDI, the Marche Region’s mature system made it a natural choice for leadership. The region now co-coordinates the work on patient self-management and runs five pilot projects that align with prevention, early diagnosis, and integrated care. All activities are co-designed with professionals and patient associations, ensuring that regional strengths feed into European innovation while new knowledge returns to improve local services.

As highlighted by Flavia Carle, Director of the Regional Health Agency, participating in a European Joint Action offers “two main benefits: contributing our experience to the development of guidelines and organizational models, and learning from other European countries to guarantee equity across our region.”

Digital innovation plays a central role. As Massimiliano Petrelli notes, the region’s electronic medical records now allow real-time data access, enabling faster and more precise interventions. JACARDI provides new resources to expand this capacity and strengthen digital health literacy among professionals and patients alike.

Beyond technology, JACARDI promotes a cultural shift toward shared responsibility. The projects now implemented in all the Health Authorities of the Regional Healthcare system will enhance health literacy, empowering citizens to make informed decisions about their care.

As highlighted by Paolo Muratori, President of the Marche Federation of Diabetic Associations, patient associations act as vital bridges between institutions and the community, ensuring that patient voices help shape regional policies.

In just two years, the Marche JACARDI team has launched pilot projects in almost all Diabetes Centres, produced educational materials, and trained healthcare staff, embedding these innovations into the regional system.

The Marche Region’s journey—from pioneering legislation to European leadership—shows how consistent collaboration and commitment to equity can turn a regional best practice into a shared European achievement. JACARDI is not just a project but a collective investment in knowledge, empowerment, and health for all.