In July 2025, the 54th International Teaching Seminar on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, organized by the International Society for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP), was held in Lisbon, Portugal. Professor Lijing L. Yan, Head of Non-communicable Chronic Diseases (NCDs) Research at the Global Health Research Center, Duke Kunshan University and a member of the ISCEP leadership council, attended the seminar and served as a mentor.
This 10-day seminar, first launched in 1968, has a history of over 54 years. It was originally established to build an interdisciplinary bridge between clinical cardiology and cardiovascular epidemiology, aiming to cultivate a new generation of practitioners and researchers equipped with both clinical knowledge and public health expertise to address the growing global challenge of cardiovascular disease. The program covers fundamental principles and methods of epidemiology, biostatistics, and applies these through case studies in cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention.
To date, the seminar has been held in more than 40 countries, with over 1,800 physicians and scientists from more than 100 countries successfully completing the training. It has fostered international collaboration among cardiologists, clinical scientists, and cardiovascular epidemiologists.
“The seminar is highly regarded in the field of preventive cardiology. My mentor’s mentor, Dr. Jeremiah Stamler, widely known as the ‘father of preventive cardiology,’ was one of the founding organizers of the very first seminar in 1968. Over the years, I have recommended several Chinese scholars to participate in this training program. It is a great honor for me to serve as one of the eight faculty mentors this year, passing on methods for conducting high-quality research in the cardiovascular field to the next generation of physicians and scholars,” said Professor Yan.
For more than five decades, the seminar has passed down the dedication and contributions of previous generations of cardiovascular researchers to young professionals, while gradually expanding its reach from teams in high-income countries to those in low- and middle-income countries.
“Many training seminars are short-lived, one-off events, but the ISCEP seminar places greater emphasis on continuity and sustainability. Today, many of its former ‘graduates’ have grown into influential scholars and physicians in the field of cardiology, remaining active in cardiovascular epidemiology, with some even returning as faculty mentors in later seminars. The program has also directly or indirectly fostered a wide range of international collaborative studies, such as INTERSALT (the International Study of Sodium, Potassium, and Blood Pressure). In addition, the United States has developed its own training course based on the ISCEP model, now in its 49th year,” explained Professor Yan.
“I also hope to work more closely with Chinese experts and scholars to bring this well-established international training model to China, while introducing innovation. My aim is to contribute to strengthening the integration of clinical practice and prevention in the cardiovascular field, and to help train the next generation of cardiovascular epidemiologists in China.”
This year’s 54th seminar in Lisbon, Portugal brought together 36 participants from 25 countries and 8 faculty mentors from 5 countries. Professor Yan delivered lectures on cross-sectional study design and implementation science, and, alongside another mentor, co-supervised a group of nine trainees in completing group exercises, article discussions, and research project design.
About the International Society for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP)
Founded in 1966, the International Society for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP) is dedicated to strengthening the capacity and support for research in epidemiology and prevention, with the overarching mission of combating cardiovascular disease worldwide. For more than five decades, ISCEP has remained at the forefront of the global fight against cardiovascular disease. Each year, ISCEP hosts a ten-day International Teaching Seminar on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention, which has provided both introductory and advanced training to nearly 2,000 participants from over 100 countries. Many of the physicians and scientists who have taken part in the program have gone on to become internationally and nationally recognized leaders in the field, spearheading some of the most significant research and prevention efforts in cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention over the past several decades.
Written by Zhangyang Pan
