Reaching a Major Milestone in Securing Global Solutions to NCDs
09/23/2011
IFIC Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Reed reacts to the UN's political declaration on NCDs
Earlier this week, Heads of State from around the world met at the United Nations for the High-level Meeting on Noncommunicable Disease (NCD) Prevention and Control and unanimously adopted a political declaration to stand united in a global fight against NCDs, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease.
During his closing remarks, His Excellency Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, President of the 66th session of the U.N. General Assembly, said it best: "There is now a mandate and a clear responsibility to address a challenge of epidemic proportions that curtails economic growth and widens social disparities. It will resonate for years to come and guide the efforts of the international community to address the risk factors and underlying determinants of health comprehensively and decisively. . . . Let me also recognize the important role of civil society as we move to implementation, as they will be key partners both in service delivery as well as awareness-raising."
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What an important milestone in the global fight against NCDs! Part of this fight is the development of health care delivery systems that are posed to respond to the increasing burden of NCDs, underpinned by scientific data that can be used for both policy reform and hospital-based quality improvement. Working together with our partners in Egypt, we established a locally –owned and sustained multi-hospital registry for patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), measuring risk factors and comorbidities, treatment patterns, and health outcomes. As President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania points out the “importance of women’s health initiatives to service delivery.” Our research in Egypt showed important sex-based differences in the ways in which women with heart disease present at the hospital, the care they receive, and their in-hospital outcomes. As countries take up arms in the fight against NCDs, I hope that a strong data infrastructure and local capacity in outcomes research and implementation science are weapons of choice.
Erika Linnander,
Associate director at the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute
— Erika Linnander on 2011-09-26