WORLD HEART FEDERATION JOINS POWERFUL WORLD ALLIANCE OF HEALTH RESEARCHERS
The World Heart Federation has become a partner organization of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, an alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80% of all public health research and Chaired by Dr Abdallah S. Daar (Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto and University Health Network’s McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health). First targets were set for concerted action in the fight against chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) at the Alliance’s inaugural scientific summit, which took place in New Delhi, India, in November 2009.
Defining research priorities
The Alliance was created in June 2009 to support clear and coordinated research funding priorities in the battle against CNCDs, namely:
- Cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke)
- Several cancers
- Chronic respiratory conditions
- Type-2 diabetes
Lowering hypertension (high blood pressure), and reducing tobacco use and the indoor pollution caused by crude cooking stoves in developing countries, which together contribute to about 1 in 5 deaths each year, were chosen as initial priorities for the unprecedented coordinated research programme.
The health impact and socio-economic cost of CNCDs is enormous and rising, upending efforts to combat poverty. According to the World Health Organization, hypertension (high blood pressure) is the leading cause of cardiovascular deaths, causing 5 million premature deaths each year. Experts estimate 1 billion people worldwide are affected by hypertension, with 1.5 billion patients predicted by 2025. Tobacco is expected to kill 1 billion people prematurely this century and the challenge is to reduce this toll, especially in the developing world, which is increasingly targeted by tobacco companies as western markets diminish.
Multi-country, multi-disciplinary approach
The Alliance’s multi-country, multi-disciplinary research will focus in particular on the needs of low- and middle-income countries, and on those of low-income populations of more developed countries. Collectively, Alliance members expect to invest tens of millions of dollars in their first coordinated research programmes over five years.
Members agreed that the research must, among other things:
- Involve local policymakers from the outset, with a commitment to scale up successfully tested programmes
- Measure clinical outcomes – for example, a reduction in the incidence of stroke, not just a drop in the incidence of hypertension
- Ensure that human and other resources are not diverted from local healthcare systems
- Create a toolkit to be used later to scale up and replicate successfully tested programmes
- Include a training/capacity building component
Alliance members also agreed to fund a programme to identify the world’s “Grand Challenges in Mental Health” Though not traditionally listed among CNCDs the Alliance expanded its mandate to include mental illnesses because of their link to CNCDs and the rising toll they take globally, including 1 million suicides annually, eating disorders and alcoholism leading to death by illness and injury.
Dr Sidney Smith, Chair of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Advisory Board and President Elect highlighted that “These coordinated research efforts are a positive and necessary step towards addressing the 35 million annual deaths from chronic non-communicable diseases. By bringing multi-stakeholders together and combining our lobbying work with vital scientific advances we will be one step closer to ensuring that non-communicable diseases are not only prioritised on global health agendas, but that we are equipped to deal with them”.
