Those who believe that heart patients have become healthier and more health-conscious over the past decade, despite extensive and demanding drug therapies, are under a massive delusion. The opposite is true: with the exception of cholesterol levels, the cardiovascular risk profile (smoking, obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus) of the European population has deteriorated so significantly over the past twelve years that one might actually refer to it as a 'bankruptcy' of secondary prevention. Accordingly, the medical community has reacted with disappointment to the presentation of the results of EUROASPIRE III at the European Cardiology Congress in Vienna.