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NCD Academy

NCD Academy is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between major actors in global health to equip frontline health workers with integrated, mobile-first education on NCD care as they take on a more prominent role in prevention.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global community will need to address a shortfall of an estimated 18 million health workers to achieve SDG targets. While improving the quantity of health care providers (HCPs) is critical long term, maximizing the quality and range of care that existing HCPs are empowered to offer is essential to achieving SDG targets within the desired timeframe. Specialists are scarce, and clinicians in general are too few and far between in many low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) to meet the needs of patients.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for 71% of global deaths, with cardiovascular disease (CVD) ranked number one.

NCD Academy is a new, online, on-demand certificate programme, developed by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), on core competencies and promising new methods to screen for and prevent the group of NCDs that unnecessarily claim the greatest number of lives today. In addition to spanning beyond cardiovascular disease for a more inclusive offering, NCD Academy will make prevention education at the ACC open-access for the first time to reach providers in low- and middle-income countries where the NCD burden has accelerated the fastest and countermeasures are most needed.

Whether you are a provider yourself, an advocate, or a policy maker, we invite you to join us in bringing this important resource to those individuals who are the lynchpin to widespread preventive health care services for NCDs: primary care doctors, internists, and general practitioners, as well as the nurses and community health workers at their side.

Key Features

Digital & on Demand: NCD Academy may be downloaded for iOS and Android or accessed via desktop at ncdacademy.acc.org. Individual lessons may be downloaded and completed offline.

Practice-Based Learning: Lessons are designed to present evidence and care recommendations in a variety of formats including video and text animation, and courses embody similar variety in how learners test their knowledge. interactive games such as Jeopardy are incorporated throughout the online classroom.

Global Vision on Care: NCD Academy content is overseen by an advisory committee of international experts in prevention to promote a curriculum with broad applicability. In areas where there are diverging schools of thought on NCD management, course lessons acknowledge and compare these different approaches.

Localized Content: Following the launch courses in English, versions in other prominent global languages including Spanish and Chinese will be released starting summer 2020.

Learner Recognition: Following lessons, NCD Academy courses close with a rigorous cumulative assessment covering all learning objectives. Participants who pass this final exam will receive a digital badge from the ACC that may be shared on social media, embedded in resumes, or printed.

Who is NCD Academy for?

General practitioners and nurses based at community clinics who act as the main source of care for patients seeking medical guidance and treatment in rural and remote areas.

Internists and nurses at hospitals who are tasked with assessing newly-admitted patients and providing non-critical care.

Community health workers who support preventive efforts and early detection in underserved communities through health promotion and disease screening.

  • Free to download worldwide
  • Available for iOS and Android, as well as via desktop
  • Interactive lessons that emphasize practice through gamified learning
  • Input by experts from around the world to ensure applicability to local practice
  • Course completion results in a digital certificate badge to showcase mastery of topics
  • A one-stop-shop for primary care providers to access education on various NCDs that represent the greatest contributors to global mortality

Get started with NCD Academy

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  • © World Heart Federation 2022