Strategies to prevent cardiovascular disease in Singapore: A call to action from Singapore Heart Foundation, Singapore Cardiac Society and Chapter of Cardiologists of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.

Introduction: In 2022, the Minister for Health of Singapore launched Healthier SG, a national strategy in championing the shift towards a population health approach. Method: The Singapore Heart Foundation conducted a series of roundtable discussions, also attended by representatives of the Singapore Cardiac Society and the Chapter of Cardiologists of the Academy of Medicine Singapore. During the meetings, the authors formulated interventions supportive of Healthier SG that specifically aimed to uplift the state of cardiovascular (CV) preventive care in Singapore. Results: In line with Healthier SG, the authors propose a 3-pronged approach ("Healthier Heart SG") to augment the success of Healthier SG in achieving good CV outcomes. This proposal includes the following components: (1) a call to update the standards of care in addressing the 5 main modifiable risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD); (2) patient education through cooperation between healthcare professionals and community partners for a whole-of-system approach; and (3) support for integrated care, including access to cardiac rehabilitation in the community, improved referral processes and access to nutrition/dietetics counselling and tobacco cessation, optimal use of information technology, and continued CV research. Conclusion: Healthier Heart SG would bring the standards of care and CV care delivery in Singapore closer to achieving the vision of proactive prevention of CVD and CV morbidity and mortality. This can only be achieved through the concerted efforts of healthcare professionals, policymakers and community partners, coupled with the cooperation of community members.

[Update of the Pdta Net Observatory of the ReS Foundation with all regional Care Pathways approved until 2023.] / Aggiornato l'Osservatorio Pdta Net di Fondazione ReS con tutti i Pdta regionali approvati fino al 2023.

Pdta Net, established and managed by Research and Health Foundation (ReS), is a database aimed at gathering and analysing the Regional Care Pathways (CPs) approved in Italy. A comprehensive search was conducted within institutional websites to retrieve all CPs approved by Italian Regions and Autonomous Provinces until December 2023, by utilizing specific keywords. Compared to the previous year, 51 new approvals were recorded. By now, Pdta Net collects 856 CPs, of which 476 are for high-impact chronic diseases and 380 for rare diseases.

Crisis Rescue Foundation Vaxi Taxi/health and wellbeing pop-ups project.

BACKGROUND: Established by Crisis Rescue Foundation in 2021 to support the missing and vulnerable to access health and wellbeing help. AIM: Address health and wellbeing needs of people experiencing barriers to accessing NHS and allied care by delivering pop-ups in the hearts of communities, outside GP surgery and hospital walls, in a warm, inclusive environment. METHOD: Forty pop-ups so far across London delivering bespoke, individualised health information and signposting, joining up NHS, allied and local community services at key sites, including asylum seeker/homeless/faith/refugee/drug and alcohol support/food bank/sex worker support/youth club and education centres. A 'Medical Glastonbury' with background music, plus free food, toiletry goodie bags and clothes. Drug and alcohol/heart/oral/foot/sexual and mental health; support for carers; BLS; violence reduction; youth mentoring; housing; vaccination; wellbeing and more, information and signposting offered to local people by professionals, supporting and empowering people to access trusted guidance and care. Cardio and mental health check cards to record health information and guide next steps in appropriate care. RESULTS: Around 2000 Londoners were given health and wellbeing information. 80% of service users were from ethnic minority backgrounds. Over 99% of service users rated pop-ups highly. Over 1/3 had raised BP and nearly 2/3 had raised BMI detected and the individuals were signposted to appropriate information and care. CONCLUSION: Effective, bespoke and personalised information, and signposting to support were well-received at the pop-ups. Professionals working with service users experiencing inequalities of allied and local voluntary organisations to enhance equity by addressing the unmet health and wellbeing needs of the missing and the vulnerable.

[Medical philanthropy in the United States]. / La philanthropie médicale aux États-Unis.

Philanthropic foundations played a crucial role in rationalizating and organizing American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The promotion of science was applied to medical reform, leading to the advent of genuine medical research within the framework of brand-new university hospital faculties. With the two world wars, the state became heavily involved in the field of healthcare. After 1945, it became the main source of funding for biomedical research. Philanthropy did not disappear from the institutional landscape; it continued to work in tandem with public authorities. Its role in medical research is now minor in terms of funding volume, but a strategic one in the development of projects aimed at advancing basic science and knowledge of various diseases.

Title: La philanthropie médicale aux États-Unis. Abstract: Les fondations philanthropiques ont pris une part décisive dans la rationalisation et l'organisation de la médecine dans la société américaine des débuts du xxe siècle, période pendant laquelle la promotion de la science a donné lieu à l'avènement d'une véritable recherche médicale spécialisée dans le cadre des nouvelles facultés hospitalo-universitaires. Avec les deux guerres mondiales, l'État fédéral s'est fortement engagé dans le champ de la santé. Au point qu'après 1945, il est devenu la principale source de financement de l'innovation biomédicale. La philanthropie ne disparaît pas pour autant du paysage institutionnel. Elle continue de fonctionner en tandem avec les pouvoirs publics. Son rôle est aujourd'hui minoritaire en termes de volume de financement, mais stratégique dans l'avènement de projets visant à faire avancer les connaissances sur des processus fondamentaux ainsi que sur de nombreuses maladies.

Special Issue "Commemorative Issue Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America: Understanding and Treating Alzheimer's Disease".

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in older persons [...].

The creation of the Fundação Brasileira para a Conservação da Natureza.

This study within the field of environmental history explores the scenario amid which the Fundação Brasileira para a Conservação da Natureza (Brazilian Foundation for Nature Conservation) was founded between 1958 and 1966; this important Brazilian non-governmental organization headquartered in Rio de Janeiro worked at the local, national, and international levels. Primary documentary sources were utilized, along with research of the related literature. The conclusions demonstrate the importance of non-governmental organizations predating this foundation, and the influence of conservationists on its establishment and current work.

The Heart Failure Patient Foundation Position Statement on Research and Patient Involvement.

BACKGROUND: Heart Failure (HF) is a growing global public health problem affecting approximately 64 million people worldwide. OBJECTIVES: The Heart Failure Patient Foundation developed a position statement to advocate for adult patients with HF to be an active participant in research and for HF leaders to integrate patients throughout the research process. METHODS: A review of the literature and best practices was conducted. Based on the evidence, the HF Patient Foundation made recommendations regarding the inclusion of adult patients with HF throughout the research process. RESULTS: Healthcare clinicians, researchers and funding agencies have a role to ensure rigorous quality research is performed and implemented into practice. Inclusion of adult patients with HF throughout the research process can improve the lives of patients and families while advancing HF science. CONCLUSIONS: The HF Patient Foundation strongly advocates that patients with HF be involved in research from inception of the project through dissemination of findings to improve patient outcomes.

Enhancing Kidney Transplantation and the Role of Xenografts: Report of a Scientific Workshop Sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation.

Chronic kidney disease affects an estimated 37 million people in the United States; of these,>800,000 have end-stage renal disease requiring chronic dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. Despite efforts to increase the donor kidney supply, approximately 100,000 people are registered on the kidney transplant wait-list with no measurable decrease over the past 2 decades. The outcomes of kidney transplantation are significantly better than for chronic dialysis: kidney transplant recipients have lower rates of mortality and cardiovascular events and better quality of life, but wait-list time matters. Time on dialysis waiting for a deceased-donor kidney is a strong independent risk factor for outcomes after a kidney transplant. Deceased-donor recipients with wait-list times on dialysis of<6 months have graft survival rates equivalent to living-donor recipients with waitlist times on dialysis of>2 years. In 2021,>12,000 people had been on the kidney transplant waitlist for ≥5 years. As the gap between the demand for and availability of donor kidneys for allotransplantation continues to widen, alternative strategies are needed to provide a stable, sufficient, and timely supply. A strategy that is gaining momentum toward clinical application is pig-to-human kidney xenotransplantation. This report summarizes the proceedings of a meeting convened on April 11-12, 2022, by the National Kidney Foundation to review and assess the state of pig-to-human kidney xenotransplantation as a potential cure for end-stage renal disease.

Examining who is conducting and leading National Institute of Health-funded research in U.S. schools of nursing.

BACKGROUND: Nursing science is essential for generating a unique body of knowledge that is foundational to the academic discipline of nursing. PURPOSE: The goal of this analysis is to detail the education and licensing of faculty and leadership in research-intensive schools of nursing and to present the current data on the National Institute of Health (NIH) funding patterns in schools of nursing. METHODS: The faculty composition analysis focused on the 40 U.S. schools of nursing receiving the most NIH funding through faculty serving as PIs on grants awarded in 2023. For the NIH funding patterns analysis, data were extracted from the NIH RePORTER database. DISCUSSION: Of the top 30 NIH-funded Schools of Nursing, all the Deans and Associate Deans of Academic Affairs are educated or licensed as nurses; whereas only 55% of Associate Deans of Research are educated or licensed as nurses. In 2022, nearly half of the top-ranked schools of nursing had less than half of their NIH funding awarded to faculty who are trained and licensed as nurses CONLUSION: The current trends in the research enterprise in schools of nursing implore us to assess if we are adequately training nurses to advance nursing science and more importantly to serve as leaders of nursing science.

The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation (ASERF): A 30-Year Retrospective Analysis.

Federal government research grants provide limited funding to plastic surgeon-scientists, with reconstructive research taking precedence over aesthetic research. The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation (ASERF) is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization that seeks to support innovative, diverse research endeavors within aesthetic surgery. A total of 130 ASERF-funded studies and 32 non-funded applications from 1992 to 2022 were reviewed. Kruskal Wallis, Fisher's exact, and chi-squared tests were utilized to assess the potential relationship between self-identified gender, practice setting, geographical location, and study type with individual grant amounts and grant funding decision. Although significant differences were observed between male and female grant recipient h-indices (P < .05), there were no differences in the amount of funding they received (P > .05). Grant amounts were also consistent between study types as well as principal investigator practice settings and geographical locations (P > .05). The subanalysis revealed that the practice setting of the primary investigator (PI) was the only variable to exhibit a significant association with the decision to award funding (P < .05). Further, of the 61 applicants between 2017 and 2022, only 2 PIs self-identified as female. ASERF serves as an excellent funding source for global aesthetic surgery. To promote further research diversification, increased emphasis should be placed on recruiting applicants from outside academia and those who identify as female or gender nonbinary.

Current Status and Trends in Lung Transplant Research Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to analyze research projects on lung transplant funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China from 1986 to 2022 and to provide a scientific reference for lung transplant research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified research hotspots and frontiers in the field of lung transplant research using CiteSpace visualization. RESULTS: From 1986 to 2022, the National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 93 projects related to lung transplant, with an average of 2.51 projects and ¥0.94 million annually. The National Natural Science Foundation of China funded 30 institutions across 20 provinces, with general and youth science foundation projects comprising 45.16% and 41.93% of the total projects, respectively. The main categories of disciplines included H0113 respiratory intervention, tracheal reconstruction, and lung transplantation; H1105 organ transplantation and transplant immunization; and H0109 acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome. The research hotspots mainly included ischemia-reperfusion injury, gene regulation, obliterative bronchiolitis, rejection reaction, T cells, and stem cells. The 6 main research clusters were ischemia-reperfusion injury, immune tolerance, obliterative bronchiolitis, stem cells, pulmonary fibrosis, and rejection reaction. The main key word bursts in the past 5 years were "vein endothelial" and "ex vivo lung perfusion." CONCLUSIONS: In the past 37 years, National Natural Science Foundation of China-funded projects have significantly advanced the clinical application and basic research of lung transplantation. However, compared with developed countries and other solidorgan transplantations, several problems still require attention and improvements in lung transplant research in China.