Building Noncommunicable Disease Research Capacity in the South Asian Region: The ASCEND Program.

Abstract

The Asian Collaboration for Excellence in Noncommunicable Disease Research (ASCEND) Program is delighted that this supplementary issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health has come to fruition. This special edition of the journal features research articles from a number of the research trainees from the ASCEND program, a noncommunicable disease (NCD) research training and mentoring program for earlyand mid-career researchers from India, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, which has been established by funding from the Fogarty International Center, United States National Institutes of Health1 since 2010. As noted by Mehta2 in his commentary piece in this same issue, NCDs including cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and cancers now account for the highest burden of disease and mortality in both the developing and developed world. Alarmingly, rates of NCDs such as CVD, diabetes, mental health disorders, and cancers are continuing to rise, particularly in lowand middleincome countries (LMICs), including in South Asia. Too little research has been undertaken in LMICs about how to implement programs and policies that can improve health, prevent chronic conditions, and also help improve their management. This improved evidence base needs to take account of the many special issues and challenges that confront low and middle income countries in addressing the prevention and control of NCDs. Often, there are health system challenges, a lack of health professionals and most importantly, a lack of a health research workforce to undertake the research to develop an evidence base that considers the enablers of and barriers to effective implementation in the local context. The ASCEND Program strives to build this evidence-base by strengthening NCD research capacity across Asia, providing high-quality research training and building a regional network of NCD researchers and research institutions with a special focus on prevention and more “upstream” determinants of health and interventions. The program has also focused on the new field of implementation science as applied to public health interventions and programs. To date, it has provided training to 50 young researchers from university and research institutions within participating countries and it has also established a diverse network of regional collaborators from government, nongovernment and other organizations as well as researchers from a number of other countries.