The NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Heart, Mind and Body
In Bangladesh and Nepal, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, diabetes and mental health issues account for nearly 60% of all deaths.
These diseases are devastating for families and communities and create a huge burden to our public health systems. The capability and systems to undertake health research in our countries lags far behind many wealthier nations. We need to address this if we are to understand, treat and prevent NCDs in our own communities and healthcare settings.
We have four goals to achieve across the Centre for Heart, Mind and Body:
- Raise awareness to prevent heart disease, diabetes and mental health issues through educating young people to make positive lifestyle choices
- Establish new approaches to enable early diagnosis, practical treatments and appropriate management of these illnesses in our communities
- Identify new systems to bring everyone equal and rapid access to specialist treatment for serious disease, using local data for supporting improved clinical care
- Develop strong lasting teams and systems within our healthcare facilities that can lead world-class research to tackle the priority threats to our health, including new disease outbreaks
We will implement these four goals in Bangladesh and Nepal through these termed activities:
Short Term (1-2 Years)
- Evidence synthesis, situation assessment, setting research priorities
- Establishment of research and capacity building systems, structure and plan
- Development of interventions and evaluation
- Rolling capacity strengthening, implementing and refining system
Medium Term (2-3 years)
- Development of interventions and evaluation
- Rolling capacity strengthening, implementing and refining system
Long Term (4-5 Years)
- Establish data repository, evidence for case management, behavioural change communication tools and effective referral linkage across healthcare settings
- Research dissemination, policy advocacy and uptake ofinterventions
- Career pathways and vocational schemes active, embedded and monitored
