Mission

Creating a cooperative approach to advancing cardiovascular health and wellness in Atlantic Canada.

Guiding Principles

Background and Rationale

Over the next several years, ACS will endeavour to make a difference in the following four areas:   

1. Improving access to care across the continuum of care (primary care, specialists, diagnostics, therapeutic procedures, disease management programs, evidence-based medicines and medical devices).
   
   
2. Highlight gaps across the continuum of care and compare against national benchmarks and clinical practice guidelines.    
   
   
3. Address local barriers to care in order to implement national and international guidelines/eliminate variations in practice. 
   
   
4. Determine the implication to system capacity and sustainability of current and forecasted cardiovascular human resource shortages.

To achieve these goals, ACS will strive to adhere to the following guiding principles and belief statements: 

• Patients in Atlantic Canada should have equitable access to their care.  Every patient should have timely and affordable access to safe and effective prescription drugs and medical devices.  No patient should be deprived of effective therapy, disease management programs (i.e. cardiac rehab), medical devices (i.e. valves, stints, pacemakers), or needed prescription drugs because of inability to pay.
  
  
• Cardiovascular disease is a chronic disease.  Atlantic Canadians must have access to all services and procedures across the continuum to ensure optimal outcomes and the greatest quality of life.
  
  
• Access to advancements and innovations in care (for example medications, devices, tests, etc.) should be timely and the process should be transparent to all stakeholders with proven efficacy and supported by guidelines-based recommendations (and evidence should be transparent and available to all Atlantic Canadians).
  
  
• All policy decisions should be based on impartial review of the best available scientific evidence with input from healthcare stakeholders with specialized disease state and disease prevention expertise.
  
  
• The Atlantic Cardiovascular Society is committed to work with all sectors of the medical profession regarding major program and policy initiatives related to physician and healthcare resource planning and work with key stakeholders in identifying and assessing issues of  mutual importance.