Virtual advice, nurture and guidance in undergraduate research and development. [VANGUARD]

There is ample evidence to suggest that physical activity (including sport) is currently the best-buy intervention for preventing as well as ameliorating symptoms of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Despite this, physical activity is not utilized in clinical practice to inform patients about its benefits as well as to signpost NCD patients to relevant physical activity and sport activities. Capacity building of frontline healthcare professionals is a suggested intervention that can reverse this phenomenon. The VANGUARD Consortium is a collaborative partnership between six EU Universities, World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry representatives that aims to address the above challenge, by implementing physical activity in the undergraduate curricula of medical schools and healthcare professional courses. Funded by Public Health England, this project was implemented in the UK with high levels of success and sustainability. This is the reason why it is has been highlighted in the recent 2018 WHO physical activity reports, as an exemplar of practice. Our project will be based on the successful methodology of the UK implementation practices, and will look to scale them up, using a strong theoretical / methodological framework, developed by the WHO. The expected outcomes of the VANGUARD project are that it will create a behavioral shift in clinical practice (via capacity building frontline healthcare professionals) while creating, for the first time, a physical activity implementation guide, to wider EU scale-up.