Abstract
The Stent-for-Life (SFL) Initiative is a unique European venture that enables interventional cardiologists, government representatives, industry partners and patients to collaborate and ensure that, by shaping health-care systems and medical practices, the majority of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) will have equal access to the life saving treatment of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The SFL Initiative was launched in 2008 by a coalition of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) and EuroPCR (www.stentforlife.com).
The mission of the SFL Initiative is to improve the delivery of and access to the life-saving indication of PCI, thereby reducing mortality and morbidity in patients with acute coronary syndrome.National primary PCI strategies for STEMI will result in more patients being offered reperfusion therapy. Countries that perform 600 primary PCIs per million population annually and have a mean density of one primary PCI center for every 750,000 inhabitants are able to meet the needs of all their STEMI patients.
Countries in which nearly all existing PCI centers offer primary PCI services on a 24-hour basis appear to achieve the best results. Overall, however, there is a substantial variation in practice throughout Europe and there are many opportunities for improving care.
Close cooperation between national cardiology societies, national governments, health-care financing organizations (i.e. insurance companies and public health providers), hospitals, emergency medical services and other related bodies is very effective both for ensuring that primary PCI programs are fully implemented and in creating formalized National Cardiology Programs. To date, the SFL Initiative has been introduced into 10 European countries.
The national cardiology societies of Bulgaria, Egypt, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Turkey have all declared a commitment to the Initiative.In 2011, 3 years after the launch of the SFL Initiative, the EAPCI will carry out a survey to assess the use of reperfusion therapy throughout Europe.