The US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has amplified its plan to target chronic diseases in developing countries by teaming up with a leading health and wellbeing company to create centres of excellence (COEs) across the world. Furthermore, NHLBI has become a founding member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease. The details and published in a Comment Online First and in this week's edition of The Lancet.
Written by Dr Elizabeth G Nabel, director of NHLBI, Bethesda, MD, USA; Simon Stevens, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group; and Dr Richard Smith, director of the UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative, the Comment details the chronic disease problems faced by developing nations. Diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, cause more than half of all deaths worldwide—and 80% of chronic disease related deaths occur in these poorer nations. The authors say: "If present trends continue unabated, annual deaths from chronic diseases will reach 41 million by 2015, and almost half of these will be in people younger than 70 years. Since the major causes of chronic diseases are known, half of these deaths are preventable."
NHLBI has forged a partnership with UnitedHealth group, creating a consortium of COEs worldwide, including in Bangladesh, China, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Peru, South Africa-Tanzania, Tunisia, and the US-Mexico border. The authors say: "Each COE includes a research institution in a developing country paired with at least one partner academic institution in a developed country. The research goals span a range of activities tailored to regional needs and disease effect...Clearly, not only do chronic diseases know no boundaries, they also travel together. Thus, the consortium aims to broaden study beyond individual diseases, in keeping with WHO's recommendation to address chronic diseases as they group in a real-world setting."
Early results are encouraging. For example, the South Africa-Tanzania and China sites are developing portable tools that can be used in the field to measure risk of chronic disease, and the South Africa site is near completion on simple, yet comprehensive, chronic disease management guidelines that can be used by nurses and community health workers. Some COEs, such as those in India-Bangalore, Guatemala, Tunisia, and along the US/Mexico border, are working with whole communities, including schools and workplaces, to redesign communities so that healthy choices are also simple and practical choices.
The authors conclude: "The NHLBI and the UnitedHealth Group will work in partnership with...other entities to enhance synergy and to avoid duplication. To that end, the NHLBI is a founding member of the Global Alliance for Chronic Disease, a new alliance of six initial national biomedical research funders to address research needs in the chronic non-communicable diseases.
"Now is the time for sustained and coordinated scientific leadership to focus global efforts on combating the social, economic, and political toll of chronic disease. The NHLBI and UnitedHealth Group collaboration is an important piece of this public health initiative that is so vital for our global citizenry."
For Dr Elizabeth G Nabel, NHLBI, Bethesda, MD, USA, please contact NHLBI Office of Communications, T) +1 301-496-4236 E) nhlbi_news@nhlbi.nih.gov
For a UnitedHealth spokesperson, contact Marti Jones T) +1 952-931-5490 E) martha_jones@uhc.com
For full Comment, see: http://press.thelancet.com/nhlbi.pdf
Journal
The Lancet