Our Vision
A child born with heart complications will have access to compassionate high-quality medical care anywhere in the world.

Our Mission
Heart to Heart builds global capacity to provide compassionate and high-quality cardiac care for children and adults with life threatening heart problems. Heart to Heart accomplishes this by providing direct patient care in an educational format leading to self-sustaining programs in areas of need.

A 501(C) 3 Organization
Founded in 1989, Heart to Heart, a non-profit organization based in Oakland, CA, provides free medical services, extensive training and education, and medical supplies to sponsored hospitals in Russia. Highly experienced medical professionals travel to Russia, treat patients, and train professionals in the medical subspecialties of pediatric and adult cardiac care.

Milestones

• Capacity Building in Russia-Before Heart to Heart began its work in St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia; few open-heart surgeries were performed on children. Now, in large part thanks to Heart to Heart volunteers, more than 350 children undergo life-saving heart procedures annually in St. Petersburg. In 2002 this program was recognized as Russia's best infant/pediatric heart program by Russia's Chief Cardiac Surgeon. Heart to Heart has now expanded its work to into this vast country's heartland-in Samara, Russia. View Samara Fact Sheet.



• Catheterization Lab-With a $900,000 donation from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and generous in-kind donations from Toshiba Europe, Heart to Heart installed the first catheterization laboratory dedicated exclusively for pediatric use in all of Russia.



• Equipment and Supplies Donations-Heart to Heart has donated more than $20M in supplies and equipment to developing medical facilities in 16 countries. We have procured donations of capital equipment and facilitated the renovation of operating rooms, nurseries, and intensive care units in maternity wards, cardiac centers, and children's hospitals.



• Medical Missions-More than 300 medical professionals have traveled with Heart to Heart on more than 35 surgical training missions in Russia.



• In October 2003, Heart to Heart will begin a new collaboration with Russian heart specialists in Samara, a major city in Russia's heartland. There we will replicate our amazing and successful St. Petersburg project as the first step to making life saving heart surgery accessible to children in Russia's most populous area.

Heart to Heart is a Volunteer-Driven Organization.
Our medical volunteers make diagnoses and perform medical procedures with Russian colleagues, demonstrating advanced medical techniques. Teams of up to 20 medical professionals usually stay for 2 weeks and work closely with Russian medical professionals to apply skills and knowledge that will most benefit the development of a given medical program. Life-saving surgeries are performed, and the most difficult cases, selected by our Russian colleagues, are used as demonstration cases, allowing for the most productive medical educational exchanges. Heart to Heart is committed to developing self-sustaining medical programs.

Funding & Partners and Support
Heart to Heart relies on private, corporate, and foundation donations to fund surgical trips and general operating costs. Past funders include: Foundations- Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, World Emergency Relief, Thayer-Townsend Foundation; Corporate- Baxter /Edwards Lifesciences, Cook, J & J/Ethicon, Guidant, Hewlett Packard, Medtronic, St. Jude Medical. Heart to Heart is committed to a sustained program in Russia as the best way to create self-sustaining cardiac facilities to Russian heart disease sufferers:

In 1990 a Soviet doctor told the Heart to Heart Team: "So many times people come to Russia and promise to help us. Then we never hear from them again. We can't believe you're here again, that you came."

View Heart to Heart Highlights Fact Sheet.

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