port should serve to help initiate global dialogue, align global forces, draw public attention, and lead to concerted global and international actions.

The specific aims of the study are as follows:

1. Define the magnitude of the global CVD epidemic by examining, analyzing, and determining the burden of, and trends in, CVD worldwide.

2. Identify current status, capacities, and best practices in CVD prevention and management in developed and developing countries, and determine how these best practices may be applied to other regions with an emphasis on multidirectional learning.

3. Identify elements of success in global public health collaborations and infrastructure development learned from addressing infectious diseases that can be extended to the chronic, noncommunicable diseases.

4. Examine specific gaps and barriers in implementing effective CVD prevention programs.

5. Review existing frameworks and develop a global platform of actions and priorities (including research and development, prevention programs, and training) that may provide health systems (at the global, regional, country, and local levels) and settings (community, school, workplace, and health care), policy makers, and individuals with a specific set of goals and objectives, and performance measures (metrics).

6. Identify current and potential future opportunities for collaboration and partnerships that will better enable individuals, organizations, or countries to enhance their capacities to address cardiovascular health. Develop strategies to enhance global, regional, and international partnerships.

7. Identify and recommend the knowledge and tools that will be needed by individuals, organizations, and countries to anticipate, prevent, recognize, mitigate, and respond to the CVD epidemic.

8. Develop an evaluation plan for monitoring the progress of global actions.