Going Global Campaign, 2015-present

The remarkable success of our Into the Heartland Campaign, 2002-2019—six new self-sustaining children’s heart programs throughout Russia—has confirmed the replicability and scalability of Heart to Heart’s program model. This success has inspired us to move forward in our effort to expand globally.

Having the capacity to treat children born with congenital heart disease and adults suffering from acquired heart disease is an important part of any country’s healthcare system. However, for a variety of reasons not all countries are ready to provide complex surgical care.

Going Global, Choosing New Partner Sites Around the World

In regions of the world where resources are scarce and medical care is underdeveloped, Heart to Heart approaches a cardiac community’s needs as a whole. We know from experience that establishing a new children’s heart program requires us to draw from the resources of the local cardiac community, in whatever form they may exist. The reality is that in underserved areas, cardiac care is first available to adult patients with acquired heart disease. By the time an adult cardiac program is “on its feet,” the adult team has been repeatedly approached by desperate parents seeking life-saving heart surgery for their children. After having to turn many families away, inevitably surgeons begin to consider operating on children with less complex forms of congenital heart disease.

Since the inception of the organization, Heart to Heart has identified and collaborated with partner sites in areas of need that are ready for a complete transfer of knowledge in the field of pediatric and/or adult cardiac medicine. The intentionality and rigor of our due diligence process has been key to Heart to Heart’s success in consistently developing self-sustaining programs.

Our stepwise teaching and training empowers nascent teams to fully integrate life-saving surgical treatment of heart disease into their existing medical infrastructure in a relatively short period of time. In particular, Heart to Heart’s institutional knowledge in pediatric cardiac program development readily enables us to design a blueprint for self-sustainability for any emerging team. Heart to Heart is always looking for an opportunity to develop nationwide access to cardiac care for children and adults of all ages in countries where heart care is not yet readily available.

Since we launched our Going Global Campaign in 2015, Heart to Heart has conducted on-the-ground site assessments and exploratory surgical-educational missions in Peru, Mexico, Paraguay, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Armenia. Stay with us as we venture forward on this life-saving journey!