Disease prevention and treatment

Health Innovation Hubs - Increasing access to healthcare

As technology becomes integrated into the delivery of healthcare, medicines can no longer be viewed in isolation from other aspects of a patient's care. We are co-creating solutions with and for patients, and working with partners to establish integrated healthcare ecosystems that benefit the whole patient experience - from prevention and awareness, diagnosis and treatment to post-treatment and wellness.

Our Health Innovation Hubs are a network of physical locations and virtual partnerships to solve challenges, and scale and showcare healthcare solutions. We have 10 major iHubs and more than 20 local ecosystem solutions that form an interconnected global network to delivery integrated care and hollistic disease management across all our therapy areas. Our Hubs put us at the centre of interaction between patients, medicine, technology, healthcare professionals and policy makers to reimagine how we can improve patient outcomes. We do this by:

• Establishing public-private partnerships based on a shared innovation agenda
• Co-creating with the entire patient network (caregivers, family, friends, co-workers, healthcare professionals and others) to help inform start-up companies and technology partners
• Bringing diverse patient perspectives to drive innovation within AstraZeneca as we work to improve the entire patient experience with 'whole disease' solutions.

At AstraZeneca we strive to meet the diverse needs of patients around the world. Our Health Innovation Hub models exist across Europe and emerging markets (Asia, Latin America and Middle East and Africa areas).

Learn more about our commitment to patients and Health Innovation Hubs here.

Take CaRe of Me programme

Many non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are interrelated; developing one NCD can increase the risk of developing other NCDs. For example, patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) have a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, a risk that further increases if the disease is not diagnosed and treated early.¹

Studies estimate that up to 36% of T2D patients will develop chronic kidney disease and 24% will develop heart failure.²  Such interconnectivity is well established, yet awareness in developing nations remains limited, providing a barrier to effective, potentially life-saving treatment. This situation highlights the importance of addressing T2D holistically, as opposed to addressing health issues separately. 

In 2020, we recognised World Diabetes Day by launching the Take CaRe of Me programme (C for cardiocasular, R for renal and M for metabolic) - a holistic patient care and evidence generation initiative that promotes the early awareness of T2D complications. The main goal is to improve patient outcomes by driving early recognition, diagnosis, referral and management of long-term risks, having a direct impact in patient outcomes through:

• Integrating advances diagnostic technologies into patient pathways to support primary care physicians to more effectively profile and identify patients who are at risk of associated cardio-renal complications
• Utilising artificial intelligence analytics and advanced point-of-care diagnostic devices to generate data that highlights the increase susceptibility of patients, enabling primary care physicians in the early identification, prevention, and potential treatment of these comorbidities 
• Raising patients' awareness of early complications of T2D

We have partnered with Tricog Health to deliver our goals. The programme is activate in six countries - Egypt, Mexico, the Phillipines, India, Malaysia and Argentina. Take CaRe of Me currently has the potential to impact the lives of around 155 million patients with T2D.

Footnotes: 

[1] https://www.diabetesatlas.org/en/resources/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32363737/

Partnering with World Heart Federation for cardiovascular care

AstraZeneca and the World Heart Federation (WHF) launched a partnership to drive global action to prevent, control, and reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and associated complications. This partnership represents an important step in realising our ambition for our medicines to protect the lives of 50 million people who suffer from cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. WHF is the world's leading voice for cardiovascular health on global policy, advocacy and disease awarness initiatives, representing the interests of heart foundations, scientific societies, civil society and patient organisations from over 100 countries. 

This partnership focuses on two main objectives: 

• Progress evidence-based policy solutions, with a strong focus on heart failure
• Increase the level of awareness on the burden of cardiovascular diseases worldwide

In 2020, AstraZeneca worked with the WFH to:

• Launch Spotlight on Heart Failure, a global campagin to raise awareness of the signs and sumptoms of HF and encourage healthcare professionals to initiate discussions with at-risk patient groups
• Inspire policy change through the Heart Failure Gap Report a global survey evaluating attitudes about heart failure among the general public and policmakers
• Invest in the WFH Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme, an international training programme on cardiovascular health policy research, health systems and implementation science

ACT on Heart Failure (HF)

The Accelerate Change Together (ACT) initiative aims to extend and improve the lives of HF patients. The programme's long-term targets include: cutting hospitalisations for HF by half and improving five year survival rates by 20% by 2024. We have our 40 local ACT on HF country teams in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.