On November 5, 2023, the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global public health non-profit organization, and former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tom Frieden, along with his delegation, visited the Institute for Global Health and Development at Peking University (IGHDPKU).

Professor Liu Guoen, the Dean of IGHDPKU, welcomed Tom Frieden and his delegation's visit and provided an overview of the institute's development history, organizational structure, and staffing, as well as its work and research progress. Professor Liu emphasized the Institute's mission and elaborated on its efforts to enhance China's participation in global governance, fulfill international responsibilities and public obligations, and promote the sustainable maintenance of global health.

Tom Frieden, representing the non-profit organization Resolve to Save Lives, expressed high appreciation and firm support for the work of IGHDPKU and introduced the organization's latest developments in relevant fields. Frieden believes that with globalization, global health has become an urgent international issue directly impacting overall human development. Resolve to Save Lives is a project aimed at saving lives affected by cardiovascular diseases and striving to make the world safer through epidemic prevention. The vision of Resolve to Save Lives extends beyond making contributions to China alone; it seeks to address a range of critical health issues globally, particularly in cardiovascular health, through concrete actions. Resolve to Save Lives is implementing projects for hypertension treatment in multiple regions of China to improve patient care. The operational model involves collaborating with primary healthcare institutions to support primary healthcare physicians.

The two sides then further discussed the progress of cardiovascular health projects and disease prevention. In the field of cardiovascular health, only a small proportion of hypertension patients can effectively control their condition. The goal of Resolve to Save Lives is to increase this proportion, reduce sodium intake, and eliminate trans-fat intake to reduce the mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases. While China has made some progress in low-sodium research, trans-fat remains a challenge.

Both sides explored the feasibility of collaborating on cardiovascular health projects and expressed their commitment to continuously improving global health standards and playing a greater role in achieving sustainable health development.

(Interpreted by Waverly Shi)