Today, more than three billion people are living with chronic disease, rare disease and cancer.1-5 Cardiovascular, respiratory and cancer-related deaths are on the rise and life expectancy in many developed countries is declining.6-9
As a result, healthcare systems around the world are struggling to cope with the demands being placed on them – out of necessity, they have become fragmented and reactive, making them heavily dependent on emergency services and hospital-centred care. Diagnosis occurs too late and clinical guidelines are infrequently followed, leading to sub-optimal treatment, disease progression and worsening, unplanned hospital admissions and premature death.
This is why AstraZeneca is partnering with governments, health systems, patient advocates, healthcare professionals and providers, with a mission to find, diagnose and treat millions more patients building more resilient healthcare systems so that we can make a difference for future generations to come.
Our efforts will span all of our priority chronic disease, rare disease and cancers, with the potential to impact millions of people.
One area in which we have already made a tremendous impact on the speed and quality of patient care, is in the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure (HF).
In Scotland, we undertook a groundbreaking partnership with the National Health Service on the digitisation of the HF diagnostics service in NHS Glasgow & Clyde*. Patients with suspected HF were invited to a rapid community-based multidisciplinary assessment, which included use of AI-enabled handheld echocardiogram alongside standard HF diagnostics. Those diagnosed with HF were started on standard of care treatment to optimise outcomes. The service provided timely equitable HF care and the wait time for diagnostic echocardiogram reduced from one year to less than six weeks. We are now partnering with healthcare systems across a number of other countries to implement this service.
And in China, we are working with the China Cardiology Association**, to embed best practice in HF quality control (QC) to standardise guideline directed medical therapy and provide education and training for HF centres***. This work has resulted in over 900 HF centres implementing new QC standards to-date.
By leveraging our deep expertise, broad capabilities and global reach, and by working in close partnership with healthcare systems, we can unlock the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of patients. As our efforts to drive improvements in patient outcomes for those living with heart failure show, the power of partnership is central to delivering the change that is needed to ensure health systems are both delivering for patients today, while remaining resilient enough to tackle the challenges of tomorrow.
Joining up human ingenuity and technology through partnership and a willingness to innovate can transform care and make a big difference to our health.
Transforming health requires a transformation in the provision of care - to becoming more proactive, integrated and personalised. A direct way to reduce the burden of disease is by finding and treating patients earlier with innovative medicines and guideline directed medical treatment. In doing so we can make a permanent impact on the global burden of disease and help healthcare systems to become more resilient for future generations, with the capacity to treat more patients than ever before. Through human ingenuity, amplified by pioneering technology, we’re turning science into more effective medicine more quickly than ever before, contributing to better outcomes and individual experiences.
* This project has received grant funding from AstraZeneca
** The CCA is jointly formed with Suzhou Industrial Park Cardiovascular Health Institute and Suzhou Industrial Park Xinxin Cardiovascular Health Foundation. The Suzhou Industrial Park Cardiovascular Health Institute undertakes daily management and implementation of the alliance.
***A non-promotional programme supported through a sponsorship agreement with the China Cardiology Association, and funded in-part by AstraZeneca.
References:
- British Heart Foundation Global Heart & Circulatory Diseases Factsheet.
- Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases and risk factors, 1990–2019: an update from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. GBD 2019 Chronic Respiratory Diseases Collaborators. EClinicalMedicine.
- Chew NWS et al. The global burden of metabolic disease: Data from 2000 to 2019. Cell Metab. 2023 Mar 7;35(3):414-428.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.02.003.
- Our World in Data – The Global Burden of Cancer.
- The landscape for rare diseases in 2024. Lancet (2024)
- Hacker, Karen. “The Burden of Chronic Disease.” Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes vol. 8,1 112-119. 20 Jan. 2024, doi:10.1016/j.mayocpiqo.2023.08.005
- Global cancer burden growing, amidst mounting need for services. World Health Organization. www.who.int/news/item/01-02-2024-global-cancer-burden-growing--amidst-mounting-need-for-services
- Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases and risk factors, 1990–2019: an update from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Momtazmanesh, Sara et al. eClinicalMedicine, Volume 59, 101936
- GHE: Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy. World Health Organization. www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/mortality-and-global-health-estimates/ghe-life-expectancy-and-healthy-life-expectancy
Veeva ID: Z4-73400
Date of preparation: April 2025
