comprehensive health insurance systems Creating and strengthening clinical and research partnerships through international and regional networks—also referred to as North-South and SouthSouth collaboration—can accelerate the transfer of knowledge and expertise and secure an independent sustainable service Member states of the World Health Organization unanimously adopted a Global Resolution on Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease at the World Health Assembly in Geneva that was held in May 2018 This resolution will allow a mandate for clinicians to reengage with their respective ministries of health to address all aspects of RHD control, including timely access to cardiac surgery Annotated References Baumgartner H, et al 2017 ESC/EACTS guidelines for the management of valvular heart disease: the task force for the management of valvular heart disease of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS) Eur Heart J 2017;38(36):2739–2791 This reference provides recent guidelines on management of acquired valvular heart disease The guidelines are essentially for adults with heart valve disease Cannon J, Roberts K, Milne C, Carapetis JR Rheumatic heart disease severity, progression and outcomes: a multi-state model J Am Heart Assoc 2017;6(3) This study aims at creating a multi-state model RHD progression using serial clinical data from a cohort of indigenous Australian patients from the northern territory Carapetis JR, et al Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease Nat Rev Dis Primers 2016;2:15084 A comprehensive review on rheumatic fever and RHD from one of the leading international authorities on the subject Chikwe J, et al Relation of mitral valve surgery volume to repair rate, durability, and survival J Am Coll Cardiol 2017 This study evaluated the influence of surgeon case volume on mitral valve repair rates and outcomes and identified and found that individual surgeon volume is a determinant of not only mitral repair rates, but also freedom from reoperation, and survival Engelman D, et al Clinical outcomes for young people with screening-detected and clinicallydiagnosed rheumatic heart disease in Fiji Int J Cardiol 2017;240:422–427 This study examines the outcomes for a cohort with echocardiographic screening-detected RHD, in comparison to patients with clinically-diagnosed RHD and screen negative cases and demonstrates that echo screening-detected RHD has a better prognosis than clinically detected RHD Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand New Zealand Guidelines for Rheumatic Fever: Diagnosis, Management and Secondary Prevention of Acute Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease: 2014 Update http://assets.heartfoundation.org.nz/shop/marketing/non- ... disease: the task force for the management of valvular heart disease of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery (EACTS) Eur Heart J 2017;38(36):2739–2791