Findings from the BEST-Living Study were presented today at the Critical Care Canada Forum (CCCF 2023) and simultaneously published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Mobilising communities for environmental action and Universal Health Coverage: Building resilient health and environment partnerships
As negotiations at the Conference of Parties (COP 28), the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) come to an end, join us as we reflect on whether the conference created an enabling environment for inclusive participation and decision making, and how such fora can meaningfully engage and mobilise communities. Examples will be drawn from the NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Environmental Change, which has just entered its second year.
Time: 06:00-07:00 GMT/11:30-12:30 IST/13:00 to 14:00 WIB/14:00-15:00 CST/17:00-18:00 AEST
Date: 11th December 2023
Format: Online
The impact of climate change on health is far-reaching, complex, and intertwined with myriad social and environmental factors. Climate change undermines our overall progress including towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and significantly impacts the physical and mental health of communities worldwide. It has special significance for future generations who will bear the greatest burden of environmentally mediated health detriment.
Acknowledging the important role of the health sector in mobilising local communities as communicators, agents of change, and advocates, this discussion event will explore the critical nexus of UHC, climate change, and community mobilisation. Communities hold valuable indigenous knowledge of the environment and ecosystem, including solutions on mitigation and adaptation that have been passed down through generations. By supporting and preserving this cultural heritage, we can enable communities to draw on this knowledge and incorporate it into sustainable solutions.
Ahead of UHC Day 2023, our panellists, experts in public health, climate change, and community empowerment, will emphasise action-oriented steps for community mobilisation, including with children and youth as key stakeholders that must be involved in “designing and implementing climate policies” to advance progress towards UHC.
This event is taking place during the NIHR Global Health Centre for Environmental Change and NCDs annual symposium, where partners and collaborators will meet in Indonesia to engage in dialogue and reflect on the progress of the Centre including planned activities for the year ahead and participate in a series of capacity strengthening activities.
Christopher Millett, Professor of Public Health, Imperial College London, Co-lead, NIHR Global Health Research Centre for NCDs and Environmental Change
Katja Cic
Katja Cic, Programme Director, International Youth Health Organization and co-chair of the Climate Change and Health Working Group, WHO Youth Council
Kristine Belesova
Kristine Belesova, Senior Lecturer in Global Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health, Imperial College London
Shweta Narayan
Shweta Narayan, Global Climate and Health Campaigner, Healthcare Without Harm
Susan Onyango
Susan Onyango, Director/CEO, Nutricare Family Centre, Kenya and winner of WHO NCD Lab, Women and Girls (2022)
New funding to help crack Australia’s high blood pressure problem
A multi-disciplinary team led by The George Institute’s Professor Alta Schutte has been awarded A$5 million over five years to focus on improving the treatment of hypertension, or high blood pressure, a leading cause of premature death and disability.
Australia’s blood pressure control rates of 32% are very poor by international standards - 68% in Canada for example - with no measurable improvements over the last decade. Of the 1.4 billion dollars spent on treatment annually, much comes from patient out-of-pocket fees, and is often directed to low-value care, such as the fee-for-service model. The latter creates financial drivers to maintain the number of services by one professional and discourages the coordination of care across multiples providers, disciplines and settings, which would achieve better health outcomes.
The problem of poor control persists despite unequivocal evidence that blood pressure lowering medication reduces cardiovascular events. One issue is the hesitancy to prescribe or intensify treatment after high readings and ensuring patients keep taking their medication in the long-term. Another is a lack of focus on patients’ needs and on achieving positive patient outcomes.
The multidisciplinary team has developed and identified a range of high-potential treatment interventions which have not been effectively implemented or scaled in Australia. The funding will allow a primary care virtual hypertension registry to be established that will help researchers evaluate selected interventions against the following criteria - acceptability to providers and patients; cost-effectiveness, and whether they are scalable across the country.
The first trial to be conducted using the registry will focus on the contentious issue of prescription duration which has recently changed from one month to two months in Australia. The trial will focus on even longer prescription durations because they are likely to be much more cost-effective and to improve adherence (thus better at lowering blood pressure) in people with stable hypertension.
Prof Schutte said that this aspect alone has the potential to lead to cost savings of over A$100 million annually.
“The result will be substantially improved health and economic outcomes – since high blood pressure causes 25,000 premature deaths per year and the economic impact of lost productivity is over $90 billion over a working lifetime,” she said.
I was very pleased to be invited as a researcher in the field of headache disorders to a recent meeting called “Keeping women with migraine in the workforce” organised by the Brain Foundation at Parliament House in Canberra. When I left home, I was going over what I already knew about the issue, but on the way back to Sydney, all I could think about was the powerful testimonies from the speakers on the incredible damage migraine had inflicted on their lives. As Fiona Jeffery put it:
