Research programs of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A.

While the NHLBI is authorized and funded by the United States government, the Institute recognizes that advances in the science related to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases and to the management and development of blood resources can be achieved most effectively through active participation in the international research enterprise. Through its policy of encouraging rapid publication and dissemination of the results of the research it sponsors and conducts, the Institute manifests its commitment to insuring that the associated public health benefits are shared as widely as possible. In addition to numerous informal contacts and exchanges of information the NHLBI actively pursues and participates in an extensive international network of collaborative arrangements. The Institute has established formal cooperative programs with 15 nations that span 5 continents, and participates in cooperative activities with another six. The benefits of such efforts are clear to the NHLBI and we hope to its partners as well. It is not just that international cooperation enables us to identify those aspects of the development of cardiovascular, lung, and blood diseases that are influenced by diet and culture and those that are not. Through continued international cooperation duplicative efforts can be avoided thereby effectively expanding the resources available to support the research that will reduce the international burden imposed by diseases of the heart, blood vessels, lung, and blood.