A €27.6 million (about $31 million) alliance sets out to catch heart disease before it strikes

Heart disease often advances quietly, from early risk signs to a first crisis, while each specialist sees only one stretch of the road. A new five-year European project, EXIT-CVD, wants the whole journey in view: 42 partners across 17 countries, led by University Medical Center Groningen with Philips, will run 22 clinical studies involving more than 14,000 patients, with the first people enrolling this month. The idea is to find three 'exit points' — prevent the disease before it starts, turn it around mid-course, or stop it worsening late on — using earlier detection, personal risk checks and remote monitoring, designed with patients and built to reach underserved groups too. More than 60 million people in the European Union live with cardiovascular disease; the €27.6 million (about $31 million) budget, co-funded by the EU's Innovative Health Initiative and industry partners, is a bet that catching it early beats treating it late.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: funding & finance