Global Health Partner AB: New Treatment Options For Swedish Patients With Cardiac Fibrillation

Main Category: Heart Disease
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Medical Devices / Diagnostics
Article Date: 07 Oct 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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More than 150,000 Swedes today are suffering from an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia). Through a unique partnership, Global Health Partner (STO:GHP) and Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm are creating entirely new treatment options. With its investment in a specialised high volume centre, Global Health Partner sees a great opportunity to establish itself in a sector where there is a growing need and where people are waiting a long time for care.

Heart disease care in Sweden is struggling with long waiting times and a shortage of specialists and equipment for the treatment of conditions such as atrial fibrillation. The Swedish healthcare company, Global Health Partner, in partnership with Södersjukhuset hospital in Stockholm will open a new centre at Södersjukhuset in spring 2009 to treat patients with heart rhythm disorders, so-called arrhythmia.

The clinic will be the first in Sweden to use the latest technology to carry out so-called ablation treatment. Global Health Partner will operate the clinic and some of Sweden's most experienced arrhythmia specialists will work at the clinic. Anders Englund, MD, PhD, Ass. Prof, will be the clinic's medical director.

The new clinic will be able to carry out around 400 treatments a year and will accept patients from all parts of Sweden. At this time a total of some 2,000 treatments using the older technology take place in the country per year.

Around 150,000 patients in Sweden suffer from arrhythmia and experience a rapid, irregular heart rhythm. There is a great need for treatment among patients with atrial fibrillation which can lead to serious complications such as stroke and heart failure. Up to now this patient group has mainly been facing lifelong treatment with medicines that provide limited relief and have unpleasant side effects.

Right now planning and reconstruction work is under way at Södersjukhuset to install equipment for ablation treatment based on advanced robotic technology. The clinic will be launched in spring 2009.

More information about the clinic is available at http://www.arytmicenter.se.

Catheter ablation has been used for almost 20 years on patients with congenital arrhythmia disorders caused by one or more extra conduction pathways. Over the past five years the method has developed to include the treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation. The technique has spread to a great extent internationally and is mainly carried out at university hospitals. In the recently published national guidelines for heart disease, ablation of atrial fibrillation was given high priority, and as a result, demand for this procedure is expected to increase significantly over the next few years.

Gothenburg, 7 October 2008 Global Health Partner AB (publ)

Global Health Partner operates specialist clinics that focus on selected treatment areas (Spine, Dental, Obesity and Orthopaedics) using a business model unique in the Swedish healthcare sector in which leading physicians become partners and shareholders. Operating clinics with a high patient volume in a particular treatment area leads to a higher level of efficiency and quality. This concept of "Quality through Specialisation" is the foundation for the clinics and Global Health Partner's operations.

Global Health Partner's shares are traded on the Small Cap list at OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm under the abbreviation "GHP."

Global Health Partner AB (publ)