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WHF African Summit

Promoting better patient care resulting from local African experience sharing

The World Heart Federation African Summit on Best Practices and Access to Care was held in Khartoum, Sudan on 10 and 11 October 2017 in collaboration with the Pan African Society of Cardiology, African Heart Network and Sudan Heart Society.

The Summit brought together African policy makers and representatives of African national societies and foundations to share their insights and strategies on policy implementation, access to essential medicine and integrative care in Africa to promote better patient care.

Heart disease and stroke remain the world’s foremost causes of premature death, despite being largely preventable through the mitigation of known risk factors. Diseases of the circulatory system are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, where over 80% of premature deaths due to heart disease and stroke occur and where Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) continues to exact a vast health burden on the people that can least afford it. Without swift adoption of prevention and intervention strategies, current trends indicate increased global death and disability from preventable non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The WHF African Summit provided a forum to mobilize the medical community and where politicians, policy makers and organizational leaders engaged on topics at the forefront of CVD to improve cardiovascular health and care in Africa.

Through an interactive program with focused workshops and open discussions, the Summit aimed to pinpoint both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of action needed to improve heart health.

Workshop sessions were thematically focused and highly interactive. The program included three workshop sessions aligning with the Summit themes.

1. Policy implementation

2. Access to Essential Cardiovascular Medicine & Care

3. Integrative Care

Please find the programme brochure here.

The Summit provided an ideal forum to mobilize the medical community and where politicians, policy makers and organizational leaders engaged on topics at the forefront of CVD in Africa.

The program of the Summit allowed participants to:

  • Interact both within and outside of sessions with participants from organizations that are working towards the same goals
  • Learn about new developments in heart health policy while exchanging knowledge and experience
  • Showcase their work while also highlighting areas that need continued and collective action
  • Identify areas for potential partnerships by meeting organizations that are working towards similar goals
  • Develop strategies to advocate for national CVD plans and discuss successful policies to tackle risk factors for CVD
  • Contribute in shaping the priorities and common messages going into the Khartoum Action Plan to improve cardiovascular health and care in Africa

Summary & conclusions of the Summit

The World Heart Federation would like to thank its Partners in their commitment to supporting the World Heart Federation African Summit on Best Practices in Policy and Access to Care.