Stroke, heart disease, hypertension and peripheral vascular diseases are leading global causes of mortality and morbidity. As the population ages and these conditions become more common in low-income countries, the need for an integrated response has become increasingly clear.
The new Heart, Stroke and Circulation Thematic Group aims to bring together experts from across all four topics to foster collaboration between researchers in different fields while providing comprehensive reviews on cutting-edge topics related to stroke, heart disease, hypertension, and peripheral vascular diseases.
A collaborative effort
Through this collaborative effort, it is hoped that progress toward a better understanding of these conditions can be accelerated while also providing improved patient care.
The Heart, Stroke and Circulation Group has 708 relevant Cochrane reviews; 216 of which have been used over 1,000 times each and some of which have been used over 5,000 times.
Professor Mead explained: “Multimorbidity prevalence will increase with an ageing global population and we know that different vascular diseases coexist in the same person. We hope that through our new thematic group, we will be able collective expertise and knowledge, create more comprehensive reviews, which will be of benefit to patients living with vascular disease, and also those making treatment and policy decisions in this area.”
Covering a broader range of topics in greater depth
As populations age and these conditions become more prevalent in low-income countries, the need to work together becomes increasingly important.
This new thematic group was formed to reduce topic overlap between the four areas of research and to improve time-to-publication by sharing collective expertise and knowledge and collaborating with experts around the world. By combining forces, they will be able to provide reviews that cover a broad range of topics with greater depth. The aim is to benefit experts looking for information but, equally as importantly, patients who may have a combination of diseases or issues that cross over between multiple disciplines.
Alex Todhunter-Brown continues: "Management of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and peripheral vascular diseases is a global challenge that requires an integrated approach. The Heart, Stroke and Circulation Thematic Group is an alliance of experts, united by a common goal to generate evidence to support the best ways of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of these conditions. Our goal is to improve outcomes for people with these conditions – we can do this by ensuring that we have robust, reliable evidence about effective treatments and rehabilitation strategies. Working together, we can make a difference to people affected by heart, stroke and circulation problems."
