The NHLBI Global Health Initiative Contents Chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are universal. NCDs include cardiovascular conditions (heart disease, stroke); some cancers; chronic lung conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and type 2 diabetes. Their impact is felt by entire communities and entire nations, and they cost millions of dollars in lost productivity and care. They affect the young and the elderly, the rich and the poor, and every ethnic group. More than 35 million people worldwide die from NCDs—twice the number of deaths from infectious diseases, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies combined. Global Magnitude of Noncommunicable Diseases - NCDs account for around 60 percent of all deaths globally.
- 80 percent of deaths due to NCDs occur in low- and middle-income countries.
- 388 million people worldwide will die of chronic diseases within the next 10 years.
- By 2030, an estimated 23.6 million people will die annually from cardiovascular disease (CVD).
- The World Health Organization predicts that COPD will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030.
- 80 percent of all NCDs are preventable.
Global Health Vision and Mission The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) provides global leadership for research, training, and education programs to promote the prevention and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and to enhance the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives. The Institute’s overriding mission is to help reduce the burden of heart, lung, and blood diseases worldwide. The NHLBI established an Office of Global Health in 2010. The vision is to: - Facilitate collaborations between NHLBI-supported U.S. investigators and international investigators to advance discovery, facilitate research translation, and ultimately improve the health of Americans, while also benefiting global public health.
- Invest in education and training of U.S. investigators and international collaborators.
The NHLBI Office of Global Health’s mission is to: - Focus on strategic international opportunities to stimulate basic discoveries about the causes of disease.
- Enable the translation of basic discoveries into clinical practice.
- Foster training and mentoring of emerging scientists and physicians in the United States and abroad.
- Communicate research advances to the public, with a special focus on providing evidence to support the activities of policymakers around the world.
Benefits to Americans The NHLBI is collaborating with colleagues in other countries to advance biomedical science and public health through research and training initiatives. This work may result in: - New therapies and improvements in public health from scientific advancements
- Improved health care management through better models of care delivery, especially for vulnerable and underserved populations
- Opening of new markets to U.S. companies in areas such as information technology, mobile health, agriculture, transportation, and education, and through better prevention and treatment approaches
Cardiovascular health. CVD rates are much greater in minority populations in the United States than in the Nation as a whole. Existing research has demonstrated the power of changes in diet and physical activity to prevent the development of CVD, and the benefits of blood pressure and cholesterol control with medications for primary and secondary prevention of CVD. Research in global settings will inform approaches to disease prevention and optimizing use of medication in areas of the United States where it has been difficult to implement changes that improve health. Lung health. Significant health disparities exist in the rates and outcomes of COPD and asthma within the United States. African Americans are at particularly high risk for pulmonary diseases. Better understanding of genetic and environmental contributors to the disparities, and approaches to primary and secondary prevention, can be gained from research in international settings. The results of this research will directly benefit U.S. citizens. Blood health. Many basic scientific and clinical questions regarding blood diseases can only be answered with international research studies because the diseases, though imposing significant health burdens in the United States, are relatively rare in this country. Some blood diseases are common in other parts of the world, whereas other diseases, such as the hemophilias, are rare everywhere. These diseases are very expensive to manage and impose high burdens of suffering on patients and high costs on families and communities. Essential advances in understanding and managing blood diseases require coordinated international efforts to reduce both the burdens they impose and their associated costs. The Centers of Excellence The UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative and the NHLBI have established 10 Collaborating Centers of Excellence (COEs) to enable the development of research and training infrastructures and to foster research on new or improved approaches, programs, and measures to prevent or control chronic cardiovascular and lung diseases in developing countries. Each COE is led by a research institution in a low- or middle-income developing country paired with at least one partner academic institution in a developed country to enhance research and training opportunities. Centers are located in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Guatemala, India (Bangalore and New Delhi), Kenya, Peru, South Africa, and Tunisia. Developing country partners include Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; Duke Global Health Institute, Durham, NC; Emory University, Atlanta, GA; and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Learn more about the Centers of Excellence. The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases The NHLBI is one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD), which was launched on June 15, 2009. Composed of national health research institutions, the alliance coordinates and supports research activities that address, on a global scale, the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. The GACD’s multicountry, multidisciplinary research focuses on the needs of low- and middle-income countries and on those of low-income populations of more developed countries. Susan B. Shurin, M.D., acting director of the NHLBI, was recently named chair of the GACD. The GACD will be funding its first request for application (RFA), “Reducing the impact of hypertension in low and middle income countries,” early in 2012. Learn more about the GACD and read Dr. Shurin’s recent Director’s Corner post about the GACD. NHLBI Global Health Resources - NHLBI Global Health Initiative Web site
- Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases: RFA on Hypertension Control
- NHLBI Funds Research and Training Centers Aimed at Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Diseases in Developing Countries and Collaborates with UnitedHealth Group’s Chronic Disease Initiative (news release)
Popular NHLBI Materials - With Every Heartbeat Is Life: A Community Health Worker’s Manual for African Americans
- Working With Religious Congregations: A Guide for Health Professionals
- Your Health Is Golden! Heart Health Promotion Activities for Vietnamese Communities
- Healthy Heart, Healthy Family: A Community Health Worker’s Manual for the Filipino Community
- Physical Activity: Your Heart, Your Life—A Lay Health Educator’s Program/La actividad física: su corazón su vida—un programa para promotores de salud (bilingual English, Spanish)
- Your Heart, Your Life: A Lay Health Educator’s Manual for the Hispanic Community / Su corazón, su vida: manual del promotor y promotora de salud”? (en español)
- We Can!® (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition) Families Finding the Balance: A Parent Handbook / ¡Podemos! Cómo las familias encuentran el equilibrio: Un manual para los padres de familia (en español)
Other Global Health Resources - Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health
- Promoting Cardiovascular Health in the Developing World: A Critical Challenge to Achieve Global Health, Institute of Medicine Consensus Report, March 22, 2010.
- 2008–2013 Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases. World Health Organization, 2008. (PDF)
- Daar, A.S., Singer, P.A., Persad, D.L., Pramming, S.K., et al. Grand Challenges in Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases. Nature. Nov 22:450:494–6, 2007.
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