Stroke, heart disease, hypertension, and peripheral vascular disease are collectively the leading global causes of mortality, morbidity, and disease burden using disability-adjusted life years.
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About us
As the global population ages, stroke, heart disease, hypertension, and peripheral vascular disease will become more common. Cardiovascular disease is one of the 12 broad topic areas of importance identified by Cochrane because they are relevant to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the World Health Organization (WHO). With the pattern of disease changing, a single disease focus in reviews is becoming less applicable to the general population, therefore Cochrane has brought together four existing Cochrane groups – Cochrane Heart, Cochrane Hypertension, Cochrane Stroke, and Cochrane Vascular – into a single Thematic Group.
Cochrane Heart, Stroke and Circulation shares collective expertise and knowledge, and ensures that evidence synthesis in cardiovascular disease reflects the multimorbidity paradigm, the large global burden of vascular disease (which is particularly on the rise in developing countries), and the continuous development of interventions and diagnostic tests for these conditions.
Our team
- Dr Ukachukwu Okoroafor Abaraogu, Group Co-Lead (from 1st April 2026), School of Health & Life Sciences University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, United Kingdom/College of Medicine University of Nigeria, Enugu Nigeria
- Dr Amanda Barugh, NHS Lothian/University of Edinburgh
- Dr Arohi Chauhan, South Asian Institute of Health Promotion, India, Indian Council of Medical Research, India
- Mr Jeremy Dearling, Public and Patient Contributor, Norfolk, England
- Mx Abi Dennington-Price, Public and Patient Contributor, Norfolk, England
- Dr Juan Erviti Lopez, Group Leader - Servicio Navarro de Salud
- Prof Valery Feigin, Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
- Prof Leon Flicker, University of Western Australia
- Prof Adrian V. Hernandez, Group Leader (from 1st April 2026), Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Lima, Peru, and University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA
- Dr Jaya Singh Kshatri, Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar
- Prof Gillian Mead, Founder, Co-Lead until 1st April 2026, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
- Dr Atsushi Mizuno, St Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo
- Mrs Sarah Murray, Public and Patient Contributor
- Dr Sanghamitra Pati, Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar
- Prof Jackie Price, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
- Prof Rui Providencia, Group Leader - University College London
- Prof Gerry Stansby, Group Leader - Newcastle University/Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Prof Rod Taylor, MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit & Robertson Centre for Biostatistics, School of Health and Well Being, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow
- Prof Alex Todhunter-Brown, Founder, Co-Lead until 1st April 2026, Glasgow Caledonian University
- Prof David Williams, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
- Prof Jim Wright, Group Leader - University of British Columbia
- Dr Simiao Wu, West China Hospital of Sichuan University
Our plans
Long-term sustainability of the activities outlined below are subject to appropriate funding, which is actively being sought. Broadly, our work plan is designed to enable us to establish an inclusive management structure, and define activities and outputs in more detail. We will also develop and submit funding applications and explore alternative models of funding (for example, by approaching our institutions).
Further specific objectives within the first 18 months are to:
- Map existing reviews and identify areas of overlap in terms of interventions, and diseases. This has been done for Cochrane Stroke and could be repeated for the other disease groups.
- Synthesize existing priorities relating to Vascular Diseases set by James Lind Alliance and other patient/carer surveys. The Stroke Association (UK) performed a major priority-setting exercise in June 2021. The main findings have been published (top 10 areas in life after stroke and acute care/secondary prevention) but there are other important priorities below that which we can scrutinize too, and explore how these map to Cochrane reviews.
- Identify a programme of high-priority reviews and updates (this could include de novo reviews, update reviews, overviews), determine whether they require complex methodological input, and form plans for the conduct of these (for example, funding applications for specific reviews; updates conducted by postgraduate students or early career researchers, with support from experienced reviewers. See also Cochrane's Early Career Professionals' Network.
- Establish our Thematic Group management structure, ensuring we have adequate representation of disease/topic experts and geographical diversity of members, including from low- and middle-income countries.
- Provide content expertise to identify priorities in these disease areas, as required by Cochrane central team.
- Provide topic, content and editorial expertise to the Cochrane central team, to support the centralized editorial service, as required.
- Co-create a patients and public engagement strategy, and ensure meaningful engagement of patients, carers and stakeholders.
- Co-create a dissemination strategy, with a focus on the facilitation of knowledge translation, and develop mechanisms to disseminate updated and new reviews published by Cochrane.
- Maintain up-to-date trials register, as this is used by a number of guideline developers (subject to resources available to engage an information specialist).
- Explore options to automate study identification.
Published reviews
News
- Delighted to announce that Dr Ukay Abaraogu and Professor Adrian Hernandez Diaz have agreed to take on the co-leadership role of the Cochrane Thematic Group in Heart Stroke and Circulation, from April 2026. Dr Ukay Abaraogu has a background in physiotherapy and rehabilitation and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Health and Life Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, UK and the Department of Medical Rehabilitation, University of Nigeria. Professor Adrian Hernandez Diaz has a background in cardiology and is Associate Professor of Comparative Effectiveness and Outcomes Research, Health Outcomes, Policy, and Evidence Synthesis (HOPES) group, University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, USA; Researcher and Coordinator, Unidad de Revisiones Sistemáticas y Meta-análisis (URSIGET) & Director, Cochrane USIL Affiliate Center, Vicerrectorado de Investigación, Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (USIL), Lima, Peru. Both are passionate about the importance of evidence synthesis in vascular diseases and are excited to lead the group to the next stage it its development.
- We hosted a satellite meeting at the Global Evidence Summit in Prague on 9 September 2024. We were extremely grateful to the Academy of Medical Sciences for awarding us a networking grant that enabled us to host the meeting. We were delighted that several group members were able to attend in person and we also had global representation from members online. We made important steps forward in deciding how to prioritize reviews for updates, how to identify new topics for new reviews, how to support authors, how to work more closely with Cochrane Central, and how a Board will be structured to manage our group going forwards. More news on that to follow! The Summit allowed us to meet other Cochrane members informally and to identify other clinicians and researchers to join our group. Read our Global Evidence Summit Highlights and Key Learning.
- We are delighted to say that we have been successful in obtaining a networking grant from the Academy of Medical Sciences, from April 2024 to March 2025 to support our meetings (including a face-to-face meeting in Prague) and the development of other grants. Grant-holders of the Academy of Medical Sciences Grant include: Gillian Mead and Leon Flicker (co-leads), and Simiao Wu (China), Stefan Engelter (Switzerland), Sanghamitra Pati (India), David Williams (Ireland) and Valery Feigin (New Zealand).
- We continue to support Cochrane Central by reviewing and contributing to proposals about new reviews.
Several of us are also members of NESSIE (NIHR Evidence Synthesis Scotland InitiativE). - We continue to expand our group with new members. We welcome new members with an interest in evidence synthesis in vascular disease.
Contact us
To contact the Heart, Stroke and Circulation Thematic Group, email us.
