NWC AHSN - AF Symposium - Dr Shuja Punekar Presentation - 26th June 2015

Dr Shuja Punekar presents on the topic 'Atrial fibrillation and stroke prevention' at the North West Coast Academic Health Science Network event which looked at innovative new ways to tackle and manage Atrial Fibrillation (AF) - which causes irregular heartbeats and is a major cause of strokes.

The Innovation in Identifying and Managing Atrial Fibrillation Symposium brought together Atrial Fibrillation experts from across the North West Coast to discuss innovations and developments in identifying and treating patients with AF.

The prevention of AF-related stroke is a key area of improvement and an area where a number of new innovations have been introduced in Lancashire and beyond. The symposium on June 26th in Leyland, was also used to launch the Clinical Commissioning Toolkit developed by the Strategic Clinical Network to support more effective commissioning of services.

Dr Liz Mear, Chief Executive of the NWC AHSN, said: “This symposium provided a great opportunity to bring together a number of AF specialists from across the region in one forum. We had an excellent turnout, with highly-beneficial knowledge sharing and insights into potential new ways of tackling AF.

“This is an easily treatable and detectable condition which affects thousands of people across the region, but often goes unnoticed by sufferers until something drastic – such as a stroke – hits, so it’s vital that we take steps to look at new ways of treating and identifying this major health issue in our communities.”

Dr Julia Reynolds, NWC AHSN Programme Manager, said: “We know that in our area there are significant numbers of people with AF who do not know they have the condition and also those who will benefit from the latest treatments and approaches. Working together at events such as these, gives us a great opportunity to take advantages of the wealth of expertise and good practice we have available locally.”

A stroke is a brain attack which happens when the blood supply to the brain is cut off, caused by a clot or bleeding in the brain. There are around 152,000 strokes in the UK every year and it is the leading cause of severe adult disability. There are over 1.2 million people in the UK living with the effects of stroke. It is estimated that 7,500 people in Lancashire over the age of 55 years, may have undiagnosed AF.

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