International collaboration and research opportunities

Globalization of the cardiovascular disease epidemic offers opportunities and challenges to the improvement of heart health in the U.S. and globally, yet many U.S. programs are wholly focused on domestic aspects of this epidemic. The goal of the Regional and Global Collaboration Implementation Group (RGCIG) is to communicate, educate, and advocate for policies and programs of the National Forum for the benefit of regional and global partners, as well as to bring policies and programs of these partners to the National Forum as lessons learned. The RGCIG's multinational membership is guided by a Global Policy Framework statement, which emphasizes health as a right for all peoples and a commitment to working with global partners, considerate of local cultures, to build and sustain heart health capacity in low and middle income countries. Current efforts of the RGCIG include the review of advocacy efforts to support global collaboration and research, organization of an inventory of international agencies involved in global heart health, development of a current bibliography of key policy and research publications accessible by the Forum's website, consideration of opportunities for training of practitioners and researchers in global hearth health, dissemination of recommendations for surveillance and monitoring of heart disease and stroke, and identification and expansion of research programs in heart health in low resourced countries. The RGCIG serves as the link between the National Forum and a growing list of international partners now forced to address the expanding epidemic of heart disease and stroke in their countries and regions.