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Progress, from the Latin “progressus” means “moving forward”. Yet progress can be a paradoxical concept, we often seem to be taking 2 steps backward even as we slowly inch forward. As our world grows richer, some populations become poorer, and many become sicker. As we live longer, too often we become less healthy. And, although we live in a period of increasing economic development and urbanization, as our lives become “better”, cardiovascular disease (CVD), the principal cause of death throughout the world, imposes an ever-increasing burden of morbidity and mortality in both high- and low-income countries.
In “The Global Burden of Cardiovascular Disease”, Deaton and colleagues explain why CVD is, increasingly, a global issue; why it attacks both high and low socioeconomic groups; why, given that it results from the cumulative effects of a finite number of modifiable risk factors, it is nevertheless so difficult to eradicate. Risk for CVD increases with increasing age, the disease process begins very early in life. Because the risk factors that lead to CVD events are influenced over decades by both behaviour and environment, intervention at any point to modify or reverse deleterious patterns is likely to be beneficial.
These interventions can best be delivered by new models designed with smart solutions able to detect, predict and prevent such pathologies before coming to professionals who possess the wide range of skills required to change behaviours.
These models have the flexibility to be implemented successfully in a variety of settings and the proven potential to detect CVD diseases prematurely and reverse unhealthy practices, such as poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and smoking, and replace them with healthy ones, such as regular exercise and good nutrition. New technologies provide additional opportunities for healthcare providers to extend their reach in working to reduce cardiovascular risk factors in individuals and populations.
Using deep Learning combining with smart devices, FARASHA can illustrate how to involve communities to adopt heart healthy behaviours and those whose environments have been modified to make those behaviours possible in a very secure way.
FARASHA is deeply committed and determined to make authentic progress, to move forward steadily and without losing ground, so as to enable vulnerable populations and individuals throughout the world to avoid initial or recurrent CVD and to have a longer, healthier, and more productive future.
