"One heart, one global platform and one ambition: a new online
service which gives people in the developing world suffering from
cardiovascular problems access to the best healthcare resources
from around the world."
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- A
revolutionary new online platform, the Global Heart Network, is
being launched to save the lives of the thousands of young children
throughout the developing world suffering from fatal heart defects
and other cardiovascular diseases.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121115/CG13843)
Professor Afksendiyos Kalangos, the Greek doctor known as the
heart missionary for his life-saving surgery on more than 12,000
children, says: "Hundreds and thousands of children are dying every
year for no reason at all. Many of them need to be treated and
operated on before they are two years old but because they can't
get access to surgery in their own countries they are dying for
nothing." 
It is estimated that around 8 million children in the
world suffer from heart defects and that one million die in their
first year of life. The two main killers are Congenital Heart
Disease and Strep Throat that leads to Rheumatic Heart Disease. But
Professor Kalangos, who is based in Geneva and chairs the new global network, said
many lives could be saved if there was better co-ordination between
NGOs working on the ground in the emerging countries, the local
healthcare services and heart specialists in the West. He says:
"The operation which these children suffering from CHD need to save
their lives is cheap – only $1,000
for the operating materials. However, we can only do this if we get
to them quickly before they are too old. Speed is essential and
what is so revolutionary about this new platform is that we should
now be able to connect everybody together and quickly to make
surgery possible. "
The Global Heart Network is the brain-child of Annabel Lavielle, a British humanitarian expert
living in California, who came up
with the idea because of the frustrations she had experienced in
helping young patients in the emerging countries to get the right
treatment.
The platform will go live later this month and will
concentrate on African countries where the GHN has many contacts
and where Ms Lavielle has been working with NGOs.
The GHN platform has been designed for users to collaborate
across the globe; either by the sharing of best practice in cardiac
care or through helping charities resource clinical campaigns
across geographies. Ms Lavielle hopes the network will help break
down some of the silos that exist between NGOs, governments and
healthcare specialists. "Often, you find that there is the local
expertise and resources but there is a failure to connect. That's
why the GHN can act as a central brain, making those contacts and
connections. While it's great to be bringing young patients to the
West for their operations, it's obviously more effective to provide
the healthcare close to where they live."
It's also by collaborating and joint advocacy, that GHN believes
it will have a bigger impact on policy-makers and governments –
essential if change is to happen.
Ms Lavielle's began her work helping young patients with
cardiovascular disorders after discovering how prevalent the
problems are in developing countries. She was alerted to the extent
of the disease after her own experience following the death of her
first child suffering from a congenital heart defect during
childbirth and after a second child was also diagnosed – and
successfully treated - with the disease.
The new global platform,
based out of San Francisco, will
act as a bridge between patients and healthcare services by
co-ordinating, and sharing, information between NGOs, volunteers,
hospitals, doctors, surgeons and nurses working in the field to
provide optimum cardiac care. Sadly, the incidence and prevalence
of cardiac diseases is on the increase in emerging economies
because the levels of even the most basic healthcare services in
these countries are either under-resourced or do not exist.
The inequality of cardiovascular healthcare for those living in
the developed world and the middle and low-income is widening
faster than ever. In the US there are 1,222 open- heart operations
per million population while in Africa there are 18 per million: one centre in
the US provides care for 120,000 people while in most African
countries one centre serves 33 million people.
Dr Neil Shulman, another leading
cardiovascular expert and an advisor to GHN, says: "A platform like
this could have a giant impact on reducing heart related health
problems around the world. In Africa the problem is acute, especially among
children suffering from illnesses such as Strep Throat, which can
lead to rheumatic heart disease if not treated
properly." Simple – and cheap - measures could help eradicate
the incidence of rheumatic heart disease. For example, Dr Shulman,
who is an Associate Professor at the School of Medicine
at Emory University and the co-founder of the
International Society of Hypertension in Blacks, said that teaching
locals in communities how to make the diagnosis would prevent
rheumatic heart disease in children.
GHN is a not-for-profit organization working above local and
national politics so that it can work across its core
audiences.
Ms Lavielle says: " We have spoken to a large number of NGOs and
all of them have been extremely supportive of this idea and can see
the obvious benefits of collaboration. Our research has shown
that the majority of the big NGOs – as well as leading
cardiovascular clinicians - see the need for this
co-ordination in care."
GHN will be inviting all stakeholders – from clinicians to local
authorities – to take part in a debate to establish what they
believe the platform should address, and to identify best practices
and new strategies to grow membership and create further value for
users. Ms Lavielle says the GHN should have at least 2,000
members within five years. These will include NGOs, medical
providers, hospitals, patients, family members and donors. She also
hopes that it will attract interest from the private and
humanitarian sectors as well as academia.
" Our aim is for at least 25% of NGOs in the field to sign up
with GHN," she says.
To view this video on YouTube, please visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH6oCLtoRpU
Media Contact: Annabel Lavielle GLOBAL HEART NETWORK,
1-415-832-0653, annabel@globalheartnetwork.net
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SOURCE Global Heart Network