International Council (ICCPR)

The ICCPR consists of named Board members of clinical societies around the world dedicated to cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation; BACPR is a foundational member society, with BACPR's past-president Prof. John Buckley serving as founding Chair. ICCPR was created in 2010, after which it became an official member of the World Heart Federation. Please visit our website where you will find a list of each of our ~ 35 member associations, as well as information about our initiatives: www.globalcardiacrehab.com

ICCPR is dedicated to the promotion of cardiovascular disease prevention and cardiac rehabilitation for ALL.  The mission of the ICCPR is outlined in our Charter See: Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 2013;33:128-131

KEY ICCPR PROJECTS:

ICCPR has led, been involved with, or showcased other, seminal reviews in the CR area, summarizing for example CR benefits, registries, national CR delivery, costs & cost-effectiveness, and quality in all countries around the world (see our website).

Our members told us what they really needed was advocacy for more CR delivery. Hence, we surveyed all countries to determine what were the CR reimbursement sources around the world, and secured “success stories” from countries with better reimbursement and capacity (including the UK; see BMC HSR, volume 16, 2016) to circulate along with our advocacy toolkit (http://globalcardiacrehab.com/advocacy/). We also advocate for CR through our participation in the World Health Organization’s Rehab2030 initiative (http://www.who.int/disabilities/care/rehab-2030/en/) where they are developing a package of rehabilitation interventions, inclusive of rehab for ischemic heart disease.

Using the most rigorous of methods, we convened an international panel of experts through our extensive network and developed a consensus statement on CR delivery in low-resource settings. It is available on ECRI’s Guideline Clearinghouse (https://guidelines.ecri.org/; in addition to being published in Heart & Progress in CVD). In the statement, we put forward recommendations on how to deliver each CR core component in an evidence-based, affordable and feasible manner. BACPR’s John Buckley served on the writing panel, and lead the section on alternative models.

We have a companion certification program, to increase capacity to deliver CR in low-resource settings (see: http://globalcardiacrehab.com/training-opportunities/certification/). Learners view a module corresponding to each core component, and complete a multiple choice exam. You can apply for the CRFC designation at the cost of $100USD. Approximately 1,000 cardiologists in India recently completed the certification.

We also undertook a survey of every CR program around the world! Overall, 112/203 (54.7%) countries in the world offer CR, of which we collected data in 93 (N=1,081 programs completed surveys). Results of the study are now being disseminated (see for example https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/7/9/260 and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167527318343894?via%3Dihub). We have for the first time estimated the number more CR spots needed in each country, and what is delivered where it is available. Prof. Sherry Grace (current ICCPR chair) was honoured to present the UK results as part of BACPR’s 2018 annual meeting in Glasgow.

Finally, our most recent initiative has been around increasing CR utilization. We have updated the Cochrane review on interventions to increase CR utilization (released Feb 1, 2019; along with Rod Taylor and Philippa Davies). We found interventions that significantly increase CR enrolment, adherence and completion (resources collated here: http://sgrace.info.yorku.ca/tools-to-promote-cardiac-rehabilitation-utilization/). Based on the evidence, we convened an international writing panel to put forward an ICCPR position statement. We have received endorsement from ~15 CR societies globally to date (including BACPR), and hope it will be published soon. We have developed an online course for inpatient cardiac healthcare providers regarding how to promote CR use in their patients, to facilitate implementation of statement recommendations. We are evaluating it, and if successful, will be sure to share it broadly.

In closing, we hope you will find ICCPR to be a companion resource to all that BACPR offers you, bringing you ideas and perspectives from all corners of the globe.  If you are ever looking for contacts, resources etc. in another part of the world, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Our email is globalcardiacrehab@gmail.com and Twitter handle is @ICCPR_GlobalCR.

A joint publication with the Canadian Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation (CACR)

Helping you to transform the latest evidence into front-line practice

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