The aim of the Textbook of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation is to provide practical guidance for all cardiologists and other health personnel engaged in the management of cardiac patients. The book will follow the concept of "seamless care service," i.e. a streamlined combination of preventive and rehabilitative methods in order both to add years to life and life to years. It will consist of eight sections.

Commencing with an introductory section it will focus on guidelines, prevention, risk stratification and the evidence base of cardiac rehabilitation. In the following three sections different models for exercise testing and training, nutritional counselling and smoking cessation will be presented. The behavioral section contains health-related quality of life and psychological issues, patient education, compliance and adherence to the treatment program. In the social section the return to work, the role of relatives, heart foundations etc. will be discussed.

Groups with special needs will be highlighted in the seventh section, which will address children with cardiac disease, elderly, women, heart failure and cardiac transplantation patients, patients with ICD or after valve surgery. The final section comprises evaluation options. quality assurance and organisational matters i.e. program design, staff training, safety, documentation and a health-economic cost review; even national program differences will be debated.

Each section will contain a short summary and tables with practical guidance statements. Furthermore, all sections will be formatted as to follow the natural course of cardiovascular disease, starting off with focus on primary preventivecare and finishing with the demands on rehabilitation of the patient with advanced disease, thus following the "seamless care" concept.