Advancing Cardiovascular Health: The Spanish Society of Cardiology’s Scientific, Sustainable, and Human Commitment
The Spanish Society of Cardiology (SEC)’s primary mission is to help drive comprehensive cardiovascular health by fostering scientific knowledge, excellence in medical training, and a strong alliance with civil society. Established as the ‘home of the heart’, the SEC coordinates an extensive network of professionals who lead the way in the specialty, driving transformations that go beyond classic clinical practice.
OVERVIEW
Quality clinical research and a gender perspective are fundamental pillars of the SEC’s roadmap. Through the SEC Research Agency (AISEC), led by Juan Cosín Sales, Hospital Universitario Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia, Spain, a set of 25 highly relevant studies was managed and evaluated in 2025. Among them, WAKE UP stands out, a prospective project focused on characterising and preventing cardiovascular risk in women aged 40–70 years, which integrates clinical evaluation, advanced lab testing, and imaging techniques, and already has the participation of 562 women. Likewise, the multicentre randomised clinical trial BA-SCAD is successfully progressing through its follow-up phase, with 695 patients recruited across 60 centres to evaluate the role of beta-blockers and antiplatelet agents in spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Both initiatives are part of the SEC’s commitment to the strategic project “Women and Heart,” designed to advance knowledge of women’s specific risk and to foster equity and female professional leadership in cardiology.
The SEC is also aware that heart health is closely linked to the environment. Through the SEC-FEC Verde initiative, the Society has promoted a high-impact study that significantly links fine particulate matter pollution to increased mortality and hospitalisation from acute myocardial infarction in Spain. As a result, the SEC has joined the Medical Alliance Against Climate Change and leads the Sustainability and Health Working Group at the Spanish Federation of Scientific Medical Associations (FACME). This environmental philosophy has guided the organisation of the SEC’s Cardiovascular Health Congresses since 2022, with sustainability integrated into the planning and delivery of each edition. Over the past 4 years (2022–2025), these efforts have contributed to a 35% reduction in the carbon footprint, alongside 60 reduction targets covering 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Concrete actions have included planting 500 trees each year and donating surplus food to vulnerable groups.
When it comes to knowledge transfer and clinical practice guidelines, Spanish cardiology remains constantly up to date. Notable is the recent publication of the 2025 update to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Guideline on the management of dyslipidaemia, aimed at optimising therapeutic goals and the treatment of overall cardiovascular risk. The rigorous analysis of these international developments has its main online driver in the blog “Cardiología hoy,” an educational and outreach project written in an engaging style and managed by the Young Cardiologists Group, which has already accumulated more than 1.6 million total visits annually.
Looking ahead to the coming years, the Society has opened a window to AI, a technology certain to transform the practice of medicine, with the aim of guiding its implementation across the entire healthcare system.
Finally, the SEC reaffirms that technical excellence is meaningless if divorced from warmth. Through the Hippocratic Movement, now in its seventh edition, the Society continues to honour and reward the humanistic values of the medical profession in order to build a closer and more ethical clinical practice. We look to the future with the conviction that every advance in cardiovascular health must be a step towards medicine that is more precise, equitable, sustainable, and human.
