Achievements2003 to 2026
What the department has built, year by year.
A record of the department's own milestones: studies begun, programmes launched and partnerships formed since 2003. Each entry links to the page that documents it.
- Established
- 2003
- Milestones on record
- 18
- Papers published
- 133
- Programmes
- 10
- Partners
- 18
BHCI at national scale: 328 facilities across 47 districts
By March 2026, 268,219 patients are registered and 58% of those under care have their blood pressure controlled at the most recent visit, against a national average of about 14%.
Programme page
Nearly 20,000 citizens sign the call for a stronger tobacco law
In March 2025, NHFB and partner organisations submit an application signed by nearly 20,000 citizens to the relevant ministries, asking for swift enactment of the Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) (Amendment) Ordinance 2025.
Programme pageBangladesh's first tobacco quitline is piloted with WHO
Over three months, October to December 2025, the service takes 11,155 calls, enrols 1,372 tobacco users and supports 210 of them to quit.
Programme page
Clean Air, Healthy Future Hearts reaches five schools in Savar
Supported by the World Heart Federation, the programme runs from August 2024 to July 2025 and teaches secondary school students about air pollution and heart health.
Programme page
Publication record passes 100 papers
With 23 papers in a single year, the department's record of peer-reviewed publications passes one hundred.
Read more
Gates Foundation grant for food fortification advocacy
Large Scale Food Fortification Country Advocacy Bangladesh runs from May 2023 to October 2026, working with government, industry, consumer groups and the press on fortified edible oil.
Programme page
National survey of nurses on tobacco cessation counselling
328 nurses at 55 upazila health complexes are surveyed between April and November 2023, with the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs and support from the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins.
Programme pageSHASTO-2 baseline survey for JICA
A mixed-methods baseline of NCD services at upazila health complexes, December 2023 to March 2024, conducted with the Diabetic Association of Bangladesh for the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Programme page
Norm Campbell Award for population blood pressure control
The World Hypertension League gave its 2022 Norm Campbell Award to Prof. Sohel Reza Choudhury for work on population blood pressure control, including the Bangladesh Hypertension Control Initiative.
Read moreBHCI Phase 2 reaches 182 facilities in 23 districts
A second expansion more than triples the number of public facilities offering protocol-based hypertension care.
Programme pageRoad safety and injury prevention programme starts
Implemented with the Bangladesh Orthopaedic Society and supported by the Global Road Safety Partnership hosted by IFRC, the programme advocates for a road safety law built on proven, life-saving measures.
Programme page
WHO South-East Asia Regional Director's Special Recognition Award, World No Tobacco Day 2021
On World No Tobacco Day 2021 the World Health Organization's South-East Asia Region named Prof. Sohel Reza Choudhury, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Research at the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, Dhaka, among its Regional Director's Special Recognition awardees for contributions to tobacco control.
ReferenceBHCI Phase 1 reaches 54 facilities in six districts
The hypertension control model moves beyond the pilot upazilas into upazila health complexes and community clinics across six districts.
Programme page
World No Tobacco Day Award 2018 to the National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh
On 31 May 2018 the National Tobacco Control Cell of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare gave the National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh its World No Tobacco Day award for contributions to tobacco control. National Professor Abdul Malik received it from the Health Minister at the national ceremony at Osmani Memorial Auditorium, Dhaka, organised with WHO Bangladesh. The World Heart Federation reported the award.
Reference
Hypertension control pilot in four upazilas of Sylhet
With NCDC, DGHS and Resolve to Save Lives, the department pilots WHO HEARTS-based hypertension care in Beanibazar, Bishwanath, Golapganj and Fenchuganj. The pilot becomes the Bangladesh Hypertension Control Initiative.
Programme page
BELIEVE-Urban cohort begins with the University of Cambridge
The department takes on the urban arm of the BELIEVE study, a cohort run by the National Heart Foundation Hospital & Research Institute with the University of Cambridge to understand why cardiovascular disease is so common in Bangladesh.
Programme page
First paper on record: plasma lipids in a rural population of Bangladesh
Published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, it opens the department's publication record.
The paper
The department is established at the National Heart Foundation Hospital & Research Institute
Set up as the institute's research arm, the Department of Epidemiology and Research has since grown into a team of epidemiologists, statisticians and programme staff working on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors.
Where the work lives
The programmes and papers behind these milestones.
- Programmes Ten programmes, from hypertension control to road safety.
- Publications Every paper on record, with abstracts and citations.
- Research Ongoing and completed studies.