Global Risk Management: New Strategies for Implementation

Abstract

Global risk management refers to both a problem in comprehensive therapy as well as a worldwide concern. Seventy years ago the agenda for the first scientific sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) revealed striking similarities to problems that are of concern today. Only 200 scientists attended those first sessions to hear ten papers presented; at the most recent AHA meeting, nearly 36,000 physicians, researchers, and other health care professionals attended the sessions and more than 3,600 abstracts were presented. Interestingly, the first four presentations in 1925 dealt with 1) “An official method for lessening heart disease”: primary prevention; 2) “The care of adults with moderate heart disorders”: secondary prevention; 3) “The economic aspects of heart disease”; and 4) “What can the American Heart Association Accomplish.” It is possible to take the agenda from the first AHA meeting and apply it to what is now understood to be a contemporary global problem. The issues and problems have not changed in the intervening years. What has changed is the toll of cardiovascular disease, both in the United States and worldwide. For both American men and women, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death and mortality, and in women CVD mortality now exceeds that for men [1]. In fact, for the past decade the in the United States more women than men have died from CVD annually. Throughout the world, one sees a staggering mortality from ischemic heart disease and stroke in both the developed and the developing nations. By the year 2020, heart disease is predicted to be the leading cause of total disease burden for the entire world [2]. Thus a virtual CVD epidemic is occurring on a global basis, while the issue and threat of infectious diseases and nutrition are being resolved.