The concept of a task force first arose in response to the momentum created by the 1985 National Institutes of Health Consensus Statement and the 1986 European Atherosclerosis Society Policy Statement on coronary heart disease prevention. It was felt by many that there was a need for an international body to pool expertise in prevention from many countries.

      This perception led to the formal constitution of the International Task Force for Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease at an inaugural meeting in Frankfurt on April 30, 1987, and to its official registration in Geneva as a non-profit foundation.

First chairman: Professor Barry Lewis.
Founder members: Gerd Assmann, Henry Blackburn, Rafael Carmena, Jean Davignon, Jean-Luc de Gennes, DeWitt S. Goodman, John Goodwin, Yuichiro Goto, Antonio Gotto, Markus Hanefeld, Robert Hodge, Claude Lenfant, Mario Mancini (secretary), Costas Miras, Paul Nestel, R. G. Oganov, Anders Olsson, Rodolfo Paoletti, Zbignek Pisa, Daniel Pometta, Kalevi Pyörälä, Gotthard Schettler, Yechezkiel Stein, Robert Wissler.

      The aim of the Task Force is the diffusion at an international level of easily assimilable information on the prevention of coronary heart disease for physicians, medical students and the public.

The activities of the Task Force fall into three categories:

      1. Promotion of the study of preventive strategies and preparation of expert reports and teaching materials. To assist in this activity, the Task Force maintains contacts with the media, governmental organizations, industry, health insurers and other interested parties.

      2. The Task Force promotes the formulation of clear, simple and up to date guidelines for coronary heart disease prevention based on current scientific evidence. Wherever possible, it works through national and local organizations for the diffusion of these guidelines.

      3. The holding of small, high-level conferences on particular aspects of preventive strategy requiring updating or clarification, and the rapid publication and dissemination of the proceedings of these symposia.

      The founders of the Task Force made a conscious decision not to include research activities in its terms of reference. Numerous societies focus on research into heart disease. However, the Task Force is the only specialized international organization with the primary goal of translating into practice the large body of knowledge now available on the causes and prevention of coronary heart disease. Despite a reduction in incidence in the last 25 years, this disease remains the greatest single source of disability and death in the developed world. Its incidence is also increasing, sometimes at an alarming rate, in the countries of Eastern Europe and in several nations in Asia.

      The Task Force is funded by donations and legacies, by profits arising from the sale of scientific documents, and by the registration fees of its seminars and symposia. All office holders of the Task Force are unpaid.

      The Task Force is composed of experts of 13 different nationalities who are holders or have recently retired from senior academic posts. All have extensive research experience in relevant medical specialities. Many members provide cross-representation with other international bodies and cardiology societies. The Board of the Task Force is composed as follows:

• Voting members elected by and representing the International Atherosclerosis Society (eight members) and the World Heart Federation (former ISFC) (eight members). Members of these two organizations must always form a majority of the Board.

• Fifteen voting members who are experts in the field of coronary heart disease prevention and who are recruited by co-option.

• An unlimited number of non-voting and/or honorary board members.

      The Board appoints from among its members an executive committee of no more than nine members composed of a Chairman (Gerd Assmann, Germany), one or several Vice-Chairmen (Rodolfo Paoletti, Italy), a Treasurer (Walter Riesen, Switzerland), a Secretary (Mario Mancini, Italy) and members, currently Rafael Carmena (Spain), Jean-Charles Fruchart (France), Barry Lewis (former Chairman and now honorary member, UK), Anders Olsson (Sweden), Matti Tikkanen (Finland).

      In the coming years, the Task Force aims to considerably increase its educational activities in emerging countries such as those of South East Asia, India and China and also in former socialist economics of Eastern Europe. In this way the Task Force hopes to help avert the epidemic in coronary heart disease witnessed in Western countries in the last 50 years. Regional subcommittees have been established to this end in China, India, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, Poland, Russia and Turkey.

      The first guidelines of the Task Force for the management of risk factors for coronary heart disease (the "Desktop Guide") were published in 1992. A revised version was published in Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease (NMCD, Vol. 8, no. 4, pp 205-271, 1998). This is also available in full on the Task Force website at www.chd-taskforce.com. This document has also been translated into several languages and distributed worldwide. Further, a scientific short version of this document was published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (1999; 19:1819-1824), as well as a short version for general practitioners in Circulation (1999; 100:1930-1938).

      The Task Force will continue to regularly update these guidelines for the management of risk factors for coronary heart disease.

      All donations to the International Task Force for Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease should be made payable to one the following accounts: