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Urgent need for human resources to promote global cardiovascular health

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 8, pages 114–117 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The World Health Organization estimates the existence of a global shortage of over 4 million health-care workers. Given the growing global burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the shortfall in global human resources for health (HRH) is probably even greater than predicted. A critical challenge going forward is to determine how to integrate CVD-related human resource needs into the overall global HRH agenda. We describe the CVD implications of core HRH objectives, including coverage, motivation, and competence, in addition to issues such as health-care worker migration and the need for input from multiple stakeholders to successfully address the current problems. We emphasize gaps in knowledge regarding HRH for global CVD-related care and research opportunities. In light of the current global epidemiologic transition from communicable to noncommunicable diseases, now is the time for the global health community to focus on CVD-related human resource needs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Mount Sinai Medical Center, One Gustave Levy Place, Box 1030, New York, 10029, NY, USA

    Rajesh Vedanthan & Valentin Fuster

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  1. Rajesh Vedanthan
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  2. Valentin Fuster
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Contributions

R. Vedanthan drafted the manuscript. Both R. Vedanthan and V. Fuster contributed to discussion of content for the article, researched data to include in the manuscript, reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission, and revised the manuscript in response to the peer-reviewers' comments.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rajesh Vedanthan.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Vedanthan, R., Fuster, V. Urgent need for human resources to promote global cardiovascular health. Nat Rev Cardiol 8, 114–117 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2010.178

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