Uniting global efforts to fight heart disease and stroke
Welcome
Dear Colleagues and supporters,
We are delighted to share with you the new strategy for the World Heart
Federation, adopted following a thorough strategic review process involving
our members, partners, Board and secretariat. This includes a refinement of
our vision, mission, and values – elements that, as a global health body, are
as important to us as our strategy and goals.
Pekka Puska
Sidney C. Smith Jr
The World Heart Federation has grown impressively over the past several years. We began the new millennium with 130
members and just three staff at our Geneva headquarters with the aim of promoting cardiology worldwide and a focus on
raising awareness of cardiovascular disease. The World Congress of Cardiology occurred once every four years and World
Heart Day had just been inaugurated.
Today, we have 200 members, more than 15 staff in Geneva including a new Senior Science Officer, two scientific journals, a
biennial World Congress of Cardiology and strong relationships with the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum
and other international health advocacy nongovernmental organizations. Working with our members and partners, our ongoing
campaigns include elevating non-communicable diseases on the global health and development agenda, educating women
about heart disease and stroke, and encouraging heart health in the workplace.
Besides increasing our membership and expanding our geographic reach, we have also evolved the way in which we operate
as a global organization. We have placed a major emphasis on combining science with advocacy; our member societies and
foundations are working increasingly in synergy toward common goals. We have strengthened our relationships with global
decision-makers and policy influencers. And above all, we have strived to make our work relevant for all World Heart Federation
members, as it is they who are at the core of everything we put our hearts and minds into doing.
Over the decade, we have seen medical advances and public-policy changes positively affect the lives of millions of people
around the world. However, against these accomplishments, we cannot ignore the backdrop of the rising global burden of
heart disease and stroke which claim 17.1 million lives every year, and is increasing at an alarming rate in
low- and middle-income countries. It is imperative that we reverse these trends through more effective collaboration aimed
at strengthening health systems, improving care and equal access to medical advancements, and achieving greater public
and political attention to the world’s number one killer. It is our firm belief that the newly approved strategy will strengthen our
efforts to accomplish this worthy mission.
Yours sincerely,
Pekka Puska, MD, PhD
President (2009–2010)
Sidney C. Smith Jr, MD
President (2011–2012)
Uniting global efforts to fight heart disease and stroke
Who we are
The World Heart Federation is the world’s only global body dedicated to leading the fight against heart disease and stroke.
We do this via a united community of 200 member organizations that brings together the strength of medical societies and
heart foundations, from more than 100 countries.
We build global commitment and promote action to tackle heart disease and stroke; the world’s number one killer. To
achieve this we influence policies, we generate and exchange ideas, we share best practice, we advance scientific
knowledge and we promote knowledge transfer.
Icelandic Heart Association, photographer: Árni Tryggvason
Fundación Dominicana de Obesidad y Prevención Cardiovascular
The World Heart Federation is recognized by the World Health Organization as its leading nongovernmental (NGO) partner
in the prevention and control of cardiovascular disease.
Strategic goals
Strategic Plan 2010–2015
The World Heart Federation urges greater action from policy makers, healthcare professionals,
patient organizations and individuals to work together to reduce the burden of heart disease
and stroke, and ensure people all over the world can have longer and better lives. For sustained
change to happen, we believe it is crucial to focus on specific objectives and actions.
The World Heart Federation’s priorities over the next five years will be focused on these
six goals:
Raise the priority of cardiovascular health on the global health agenda
Improve care of heart disease and stroke
Promote heart-healthy diets and physical activity for all
Improve recognition and control of high blood pressure globally
Advance a tobacco-free world
Eliminate rheumatic fever and minimize the burden of rheumatic heart disease
Kenyan Heart Foundation
Working to reduce the burden in low- and middle-income
countries where 80% of deaths occur
Vision, Mission & Values
Vision
Mission
What our ambition is
How we are going to achieve our vision
For people all over the world to have a longer
and better life through the prevention and
control of heart disease and stroke
The World Heart Federation unites its members
and leads the global fight against heart
disease and stroke, with a focus on low- and
middle-income countries
Values
What we believe in
Leadership
Bringing together thought
leaders in cardiovascular
science and advocacy
Catalysts in the global fight
against heart disease and
stroke
Learning
Unity
Providing a global voice to
shape public-health agendas
A unique point of connection
for the global cardiovascular
community to exchange ideas
and share best practice
Encouraging the advancement
of scientific knowledge and
evidence
A collective source of
independent knowledge and
authority in controlling the
epidemic
Equality
We believe that everyone, regardless of geography or socio-economic status, deserves equal access to a healthenabling environment, health information, treatment and care so that all people across the globe can lead a
heart-healthy life
World Heart Day: more than 100 countries unite each year in
the fight against heart disease and stroke
World Heart Federation ©Jason Joyce
World Heart Federation ©Lois Greenfield
Hugh Schofield
Scheffold Vizner
World Heart Federation ©Lois Greenfield
Jean Gaumy ©Jean Gaumy/Magnum Photos
World Heart Federation
World Heart Federation ©Jason Joyce
World Heart Federation ©Lois Greenfield
Hugh Schofield
Four programme areas
To achieve the World Heart Federation’s strategic goals, we have organized our efforts in four programme areas: awareness
raising, advocacy, applied research and sharing science/building capacity.
Awareness raising
Advocacy
Around the world, our members work to build awareness
for the prevention and control of heart disease and stroke.
Our stand-out campaigns educate those at risk and
promote the importance and benefits of heart-healthy
diets, physical activity and tobacco-free lives.
With our members and partners, we are advocating for
policy changes in all areas linked to cardiovascular
disease, such as tobacco control and obesity as well as
improving employee health through workplace-wellness
initiatives. We have been at the forefront of discussions
to secure a landmark global agreement banning soft
drinks in schools.
World Heart Day
Celebrated annually, events are run in more than
100 countries worldwide. Engaging governments,
healthcare professionals, employers, NGOs and
individuals to reduce the incidence of
cardiovascular disease and make it a global
health priority.
We advocate for greater commitments to be made to
tackle heart disease and stroke, and call for policies to
include non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the
global health and development agenda to reduce the
rising epidemic of NCDs in low- and middle-income
countries.
Global Health Agenda
Go Red For Women
Created by the American Heart
Association, it is a multinational
campaign targeting women to
increase
awareness
and
understanding that cardiovascular disease is their
number
one
killer.
Community-based
programmes reach women in innovative ways
throughout low- and middle-income countries.
By mobilizing our member network and participating in key advocacy
events, including the World Health Assembly and UN meetings, we
reach the decision-makers directly. United efforts have resulted in the
Commonwealth Heads of Government issuing a landmark statement
on NCDs thus committing fifty-four countries, representing a third of the
world’s population, to work towards including them in the global
development agenda. In partnership with our sister federations in cancer,
diabetes and respiratory diseases, we continue to build on this
momentum and lobby for the rising burden of NCDs to be addressed in
the global health agenda and the Millennium Development Goals.
Applied research
Sharing science and building capacity
We seek to measurably reduce heart disease and stroke
risk factors via resource-appropriate applied research
projects. We work with ministries of health, members,
health practitioners, partners and the World Health
Organization to establish best-practice models for costeffective prevention and control.
We share science and build capacity with members’
networks, societies and foundations. We do this
through a biennial global congress, our two peerreviewed journals, and a variety of workshops, training
courses and fellowships. Underpinning these efforts are
world leading scientific working groups focused on
research, rheumatic heart disease, education and
training.
Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD)
This is the most common acquired cardiovascular disease in children
and young adults, and a major public health problem in Africa, Asia
and the Pacific. In Fiji and Tonga since 2006, over 400 healthcare
professionals (doctors, nurses and midwives) have been trained in
disease identification, management and reporting, and over 12,000
schoolchildren have been screened. Of these, hundreds were
identified as having RHD. Many had not been diagnosed previously
and would otherwise not have been started on long-term penicillin
that prevents progression of rheumatic fever, which can lead to
valve damage. Disease registries in both countries now track over
2,000 cases.
World Congress of Cardiology
The World Heart Federation offers a global platform for worldrenowned cardiologists and allied healthcare professionals to present
and share the best of science in the field of cardiovascular health.
Held in major cities such as Buenos Aires or Beijing, the World
Congress of Cardiology emphasises the complementary nature of
science and public outreach and strives to spread the message that
through individual, community and patient-care interventions, the
growing epidemic of cardiovascular disease can be prevented and
managed.
Additional information about the World Heart Federation is available on our website:
www.worldheart.org
Direct your enquiries to the World Heart Federation Secretariat:
World Heart Federation
PO Box 155
7 rue des Battoirs
1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 807 03 20
Fax: +41 22 807 03 39
E-mail: [email protected]