Collaboration with The Lancet

Heartfile is working with the Lancet on a series on Health Reforms in Pakistan along the lines of the recent Mexican series. The series will provide an opportunity to look critically at evidence and will be a catalyst for further change and improvements in the health system. Many of these issues are also generic to developing countries where shrinking welfare budgets and market economies make it difficult for governments to achieve the equity objective in health.

Collaboration with the Partnership for  Transparency Fund

Working in collaboration with the World Bank and Asian Development bank supported Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF) to assess corruption in the health service delivery area with the objective of coming up with an action plan to bring greater transparency in governance and service delivery in the health sector in Pakistan. ► Project agreement can be accessed here.

Collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation

Working in collaboration with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to conducting a strategic analysis with a view to developing an action plan to institutionally integrate the delivery of population and health services in Pakistan  and to mainstream population planning and the delivery of its services into health policy and planning. Project outline can be accessed here ►.

Collaborative initiatives with SAARC

World Health Organization - Cardiovascular Unit of WHO

Heartfile has been closely involved with two projects of the Cardiovascular Disease Unit of the World Health Organization.

The ‘WHO CVD-Risk Management Package for Low- and Medium Resources Settings’ uses opportunistic screening of the population for high blood pressure as an entry point to comprehensive CVD risk reduction. Algorithms in this package are meant to be implemented in a range of healthcare facilities in medium- and low-resource settings; for this reason, they have been designed for three scenarios that reflect the commonly encountered resource availably strata in such settings. These scenarios have been constructed on the basis of the skill level of the healthcare provider, the diagnostic and therapeutic facilities and the available health services. Heartfile has been involved with the development of this package through the participation of President Heartfile in the consultative process; in addition, Heartfile has validated this package in the Pakistani setting and it is now being used for training. (jc.htm)

Heartfile was also the principal collaborator in Pakistan, on the global study entitled ‘Prevention of REcurrences of Myocardial Infarction and StrokE’ (PREMISE) - a WHO-coordinated international multi-centre collaborative study conducted by its CVD Unit. This study aimed to assess current patterns related to secondary prevention of coronary heart and cerebro-vascular diseases in tertiary, secondary and primary healthcare settings in the developing countries. PREMISE also aims to document exposure to secondary prevention interventions as perceived and reported by patients and identify barriers to the implementation of appropriate treatments at different levels of healthcare.

► http://www.who.int/ncd/cvd/index.htm

World Health Organization - NCD Surveillance Unit

Heartfile is actively liaising with the NCD Surveillance Unit of the World Health Organization in preparation for setting up an NCD surveillance system for Pakistan as part of its public-private partnership program focused on NCD prevention and control. nap.htm

Heartfile has actively participated in several meetings organized by the NCD Surveillance Unit in Beirut and Geneva to facilitate this.

► www.who.int/ncd_surveillance/steps

World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control - Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance

Heartfile is actively liaising with the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Unit of the World Health Organization in preparation for setting up an NCD surveillance system for Pakistan as part of its public-private partnership program napsurv.htm.

World Heart Federation

The World Heart Federation is the apex organization of over 190 heart foundations and societies the world over. Its mission is to fight heart disease and stroke with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. Heartfile is an associate member of WHF. In addition, President Heartfile is a Board member of WHF. ► http://www.worldheart.org

The World Heart Federation is working with Heartfile to replicate one of its projects ‘The Pakistan Community Based Social Marketing Program’ in other parts of the world.

► http://www.worldheart.org/education_and_training/Pakistan%20CVD%20Prevention%20Program.pdf

World Heart Federation, Foundations Advisory Board

President Heartfile chairs the Foundations Advisory Board of the World Heart Federation. She aims to channel WHFs investments in foundations capacity-building towards shaping a strategic vision and capacity in the area of CVD prevention and control in individual countries; she envisions that such investments should help set, wherever applicable, and contribute to national and regional goals for the prevention and control of CVDs. Investments made by WHF towards capacity-building should have a measurable impact within the country. In addition, WHF should have its own set of indicators to monitor and evaluate such investments.

African Twining Program of the African Heart Network
The African Twining Program is a capacity-building initiative of the World Heart Federation focused on training, transfer of knowledge and capacity development of the primary healthcare system and local Heart Foundations in collaboration with the African Heart Network. The Program has been launched in response to pressing demand from existing African Heart Foundations and Societies of Cardiology, with the support of the WHO AFRO Region.

As part of this program, WHF and ATP facilitate the linkage or twining of a ‘developed’ heart foundation within a country and an ‘evolving’ heart foundation within the African partner country with the overall aim of fostering a linkage in which the developed partner will assist with capacity-building and transfer of expertise. Under this program, the Irish Heart Foundation is helping to build the Egyptian Heart Foundation; the Danish Heart Foundation is assisting a group in Kenya whereas Heartfile in Pakistan is assisting with capacity-building of the Tunisian Heart Foundation.

► http://www.worldheart.org/education_and_training/ATP.pdf

Centers for Disease Control, USA
Organized by the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, USA, and coordinated by the International Union for Health Promotion, the initiative on Cardiovascular Health and Chronic Disease Epidemiology for Sub Saharan Africa aims at designing a capacity-building training program for African countries focused on cardiovascular disease epidemiology, prevention and control. A preliminary consultation to guide the development of this initiative was recently conducted by CDC in Accra, Ghana. President Heartfile participated as a resource person to give guidance on how to design, implement and evaluate the training program.

International Union for Health Promotion

Heartfile has been actively collaborating with the International Union for Health Promotion on the CDC initiative in Africa. President Heartfile is a member of the consortium on ‘Effective Community Health Promotion’ project. This four-year project is part of the CDC-IUHPE cooperative agreement. The overall aim is to support activities and to develop policy recommendations to strengthen effective community health promotion programs at a global level.

World Heart Forum

The World Heart Forum for Global Cardiovascular Disease Prevention is an alliance of international, continental and national professional societies, heart foundations, non-governmental organizations and industries who share a common interest in cardiovascular prevention. The purpose of the Forum is to provide a collaborative venue for the development of international strategies for CVD prevention. President Heartfile is a member of the Forum.

► http://www.worldheart.org/forum/introforum.htm

Beijing Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

Heartfile has established linkages with the Department of Epidemiology of Beijing Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; President Heartfile was part of the team consisting of members of the World Heart Forum, who visited China in a technical advisory capacity to assist the Chinese government in their efforts with scaling up hypertension control in China.

IC Health - Initiative for Cardiovascular Research in the Developing Countries (IC Health)

Dr. Sania Nishtar has recently accepted to be a member of the Foundations Council of the Initiative for Cardiovascular Research in the Developing Countries

Global Forum for Health Research

Heartfile is developing linkages with the Global Forum for Health Research. Preliminary consultations with key officials have been held. Further details will be posted soon.

World Heart Day initiative

World Heart Day is an initiative of the WHF, WHO and UNESCO. It is a globally observed advocacy campaign observed on the first Sunday of every September. It is observed in more than 90 countries and serves to create awareness about heart diseases and their prevention. President Heartfile is the chair of this initiative.

Circulation. 2003 Sep 2;108(9):1038-40.at ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed

► http://www.worldheartday.com

Heartfile Replication Program

The Heartfile Replication Program links it to many organizations in south Asia, the Middle East and Africa. replication.htm

St Thomas Hospital London

Heartfile has been conducting research studies in collaboration with St Thomas’ Hospital, London, to define causal associations for Coronary Artery Disease in a native Pakistani setting.

View Nishtar S. Curr med Res Opin 2004: 20(1):55-64 for preliminary results at ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed

Heartfile is also one of the founder members of the International Collaboration on Information Use in Cardiovascular Health Promotion in the Developing Countries

View Int J Cardiol. 2003 Dec;92(2-3):105-11 at ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed

Two workshops have been held to date, within this framework.

Workshop on "Information use in CVD prevention as part of the 5th International conference on preventive Cardiology and the 4th International Heart Health Conference. Osaka, Japan.

Workshop on the role of "ICT in CVD prevention" as part of the 13th Asia Pacific Congress of Cardiology, Manila Philippines, October 2001

View Int J Cardiol. 2003 Dec;92(2-3):105-11 at ► http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search&DB=PubMed

World Health Organization - Mega-Country Health Promotion Network

The Mega-Country Health Promotion Network of the World Health Organization is a collaborative initiative of the Department of Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, WHO, and the International Division for Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control, USA. It was conceptualized in view of the realization that 60% of the world’s population is centered on the 11 most populous countries of the world; the concept was further built on the understanding that health promotion should be one of the fundamental guiding principles to achieve better health outcomes at the population level.

This realization lent impetus for networking of these countries with a two-pronged objective: firstly, to promote a set of activities and interventions that capitalize on the existing opportunity to impact NCD trends within these vast populations and secondly, to foster amongst member countries, a collaborative environment geared to teasing out their weaknesses and strengths in an attempt to interface them meaningfully so that these gaps can be bridged. Over the last three years, efforts coordinated by the WHO through its formal country linkages have resulted in the establishment of an official network of key representative national institutions that have a major stake in NCD prevention in their respective countries.

Heartfile is not just the official contact for Pakistan but also the index collaborator on one of the key Mega-Country initiatives that focuses on defining the link between poverty and NCD prevention and health promotion on the premise that establishing that link would be crucial to scaling up global activities related to the prevention and control of NCDs.

The other key initiative of the Mega-Country Network, facilitated with technical guidance and inputs from the International Division for Health Promotion of CDC, USA, is focused on the setting up or strengthening of the existing NCD Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance in several developing member countries. Heartfile is the official organizational link in this activity.

In addition, President Heartfile is one of the four members of the ad hoc steering committee of the Mega-Country Health Promotion Network.
►  http://www.who.int/hpr/mega/index.shtml