525,797 Total Charter Signees Worldwide

The Global Atrial Fibrillation Patient Charter

In 2011, a steering committee of six patient organisations along with 39 other patient organisation representatives from 20 countries came together to develop a global charter for people living with atrial fibrillation (AF). The Global AF Patient Charter was created to bring a worldwide, unified voice to improving the care and treatment of individuals living with AF and AF-related stroke.

The Global AF Patient Charter is just the first step. We must now take forward the call-to-action recommendations and use them to put AF and AF-related stroke prevention at the top of national healthcare agendas.

Together we can make a difference!

The goal of Sign Against Stroke is to gather 1.7 million signatures in support of the Charter – one for each of the estimated number of grandparents, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles killed or disabled by AF strokes every year. — and provide those signatures to healthcare decision makers in countries across the world. Demonstrating strong support behind the Charter recommendations will help put AF and AF-related stroke prevention at the forefront of national health agendas.
Sign the Charter now!

Executive Summary and Global AF Patient Charter

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting approximately 6 million individuals in Europe, 8 million in China and over 2.6 million in the United States. Individuals with AF are at greater risk for debilitating stroke and will account for approximately 15% of all of the estimated 15 million strokes worldwide per year. Therapy to reduce risk of blood clots can prevent strokes and their associated devastating human and economic costs, yet AF often goes unrecognized and untreated. Patients diagnosed with AF that don’t receive anticoagulation or receive suboptimal treatment are at increased risk of stroke.

The Global AF Patient Charter was designed to bring a worldwide, unified voice to improving the care and treatment of individuals living with atrial fibrillation (AF) and those at risk for AF-related stroke. It contains recommendations about critical actions that policymakers, healthcare providers, payers and national governments can take to save lives, reduce the burden of disease and the huge associated medical costs.
Why have such a large number and wide variety of organisations representing atrial fibrillation, anticoagulation, stroke and heart patient and medical associations come together to endorse the Charter? The enormous costs and burden of disability and death due to unrecognized and untreated AF can be prevented if countries take simple actions. Today’s emphasis on cost containment can pressure healthcare systems to discount the patient perspective. Increased awareness of AF and early diagnosis, emphasis on prevention and treatment of AF-related stroke governed by evidence-based guidelines, enhanced continuity of care, national stroke registries, and timely access to novel oral anticoagulants, antiarrhythmics and new approaches that overcome current treatment limitations represent the best path toward quality care for people with AF while reducing the economic impact.
We call on national governments, policy makers, payers and healthcare providers to take action to improve the lives of those with AF and drastically reduce the risks and costs of AF-related stroke.

This Charter has been developed independently by a committee of patient groups. Bayer Pharma AG provided funding for a secretariat to support the committee.

Download the Global AF Patient Charter in your national language: