ACROSS Funding Announcement - Statement July 2025
A new global research programme has been established to increase the capacity of health services in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to deliver scalable, clinically effective, and affordable rehabilitation programmes for people living with heart disease and a mental health difficulty. This research was funded by the NIHR (NIHR205540) using UK international development funding from the UK Government to support global health research. ACROSS (Affordable Cardiac Rehabilitation: An Outreach Interdisciplinary Strategic Study) is a 5-year collaboration led by the University of Glasgow in partnership with a range of universities and healthcare organisations in the UK, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Our key partners include:
- Pakistan Institute for Living and Learning
- Bangladesh University of Life Sciences
- Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (India)
- University of Manchester
- University of Leicester
The evidence and infrastructure needed to access and deliver cardiac rehabilitation (CR) services are lacking in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs), resulting in a substantial loss of potential health and socio-economic benefits. Home-based programmes provide an affordable model of delivery that can deliver a substantial increase in the capacity for health services to deliver CR access.
ACROSS seeks to co-develop (with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and policy makers) a culturally and contextually applicable and affordable home-based programme for people with the multimorbidity of coronary heart disease and/or heart failure with co-existing depression and/or anxiety and evaluate the acceptability, clinical effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of its implementation in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and to determine its scalability and sustainability.
ACROSS will be co-led by Professor Rod Taylor from the University of Glasgow and Professor Imran Chaudhry from the Pakistan Institute for Living and Learning.
Professor Taylor said “Cardiovascular disease is the most prevalent non-communicable disease, the leading cause of global mortality, and a major contributor to premature disability and ill-health. We are delighted to have secured funding to develop and evaluate an affordable model of home-based rehabilitation which has potential to significantly improve the lives of many people living with heart disease and mental health difficulties across our South Asian partner countries and people from South Asia living in UK.
Professor Chaudhry added “We are excited to be involved in this important, strategic project. By working collaboratively with patients, heath service professional and policy makers we are confident that ACROSS can deliver real long-term benefits to our health services’ capacity to deliver cardiac and mental health rehabilitation services in Pakistan and beyond. We look forward to working with all our partners over the next 5 years to make this a reality”
You can find out more about ACROSS by reading the study protocol published in the NIHR Open Research journal:
Affordable Cardiac Rehabilitation An Outreach Inter-Disciplinary Strategic Study (ACROSS) – Research Programme Protocol
