Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to support the launch of the new World Heart Federation five-year strategy, which we have been working hard to develop in recent months. This year’s World Congress of Cardiology provides a unique opportunity to present our strategy to you - our members, supporters and partners – and discuss how we can work together to achieve our common goals.

We are proud to say that our organization has grown impressively in the past several years. We began the new millennium with 130 members and just three staff at our Geneva headquarters. The World Congress of Cardiology occurred once every four years and World Heart Day had just been inaugurated.

Today, we have more than 200 members, more than 15 staff in Geneva, 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 groups.

Working closely with all of you, our ongoing campaigns include elevating non-communicable disease on the global health and development agendas, 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. As you know, we have placed a major emphasis on combining science with advocacy, which would not have been possible without the help of our member societies and foundations. We have strengthened our relationships with global decision-makers and policy influencers. Above all, we have worked to remain relevant for all World Heart Federation members, as our members are at the core of everything we do.

We still have a lot of work ahead of us. In the past decade, we have seen medical advances and public-policy changes positively affect the lives of millions of people around the world. However, we cannot ignore the backdrop – a rising global burden of heart disease and stroke, which claims 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 advances, and focusing greater public and political attention on the world’s number one killer.

Your involvement and support in making these campaigns successful will be valued by everyone working on cardiovascular health, and we hope that we will be able to count on your support and work together to achieve our goals.

On behalf of our colleagues, we look forward to delivering our strategy together and to another successful year ahead.

Yours in heart health,


Pekka Puska, MD, PhD, President
Sidney C Smith Jr, MD, President-Elect