Our Program Model
$258 per Child
Because we teach and train medical teams abroad how to save lives, Heart to Heart’s cash investment is surprisingly low—$258 per child saved.
2,000+ Annually
Each year 2,000+ children receive life-saving surgical procedures at Heart to Heart’s partner sites—six pediatric cardiac centers we helped establish.
300+ Medical Volunteers
More than 300 cardiac specialists have volunteered on Heart to Heart team training missions since our founding. See our medical volunteers in action and hear a doctor speak about why Heart to Heart's unique education-based approach is so important.
More than 35,000 Children's Lives Saved
Our program model is incredibly efficacious: the lives of tens of thousands of children with heart defects have already been saved.
The Four Components of our Program Model
Heart to Heart provides year-round guidance and support to our partner site teams abroad. While our international colleagues are putting new skills into practice between our visits, members of our medical advisory council review surgical outcomes to determine our next educational steps. Our medical volunteers provide strategic guidance and mentor department heads remotely as they implement Heart to Heart’s recommendations to reach the next level of program advancement. Lastly, we conduct annual surgical-educational missions to partner sites—the highlight of our program year!
Data collection & analysis
Our experts provide year-round rigorous analysis of each developing team’s surgical results. This enables us to give concise feedback for improving patient outcomes and taking surgery to the next level of complexity. We begin by requiring emerging teams to collect and track their surgical outcomes data—ultimately teaching them how to use data to self-evaluate in order to continuously improve outcomes.
Strategic guidance & leadership development
Throughout the year, Heart to Heart formulates next steps, guiding department heads to (1) refine internal systems; (2) enhance teamwork; (3) advance staff knowledge base and clinical skills; and (4) utilize surgical outcomes data for self-evaluation. This is of critical importance in order to achieve self-sustainability.
By implementing industry-standard best practices, our international colleagues fortify the structure, stability, and continuity of their own institutions—in addition to saving lives every day.
Annual surgical-educational missions
A Heart to Heart team of medical volunteers (12-15 cardiac specialists) works with a team abroad at their home institution for nearly two weeks each year. Side-by-side, the joint team diagnoses, performs open heart surgery, and cares for children postoperatively in the intensive care unit. The clinically based, patient-centered training we provide is complemented each afternoon with case conferences, workshops, and lectures to ensure that our medical volunteers are effectively transferring clinical skills and advanced cardiac knowledge.
Heart to Heart volunteers are cardiac specialists who are both licensed and currently practicing at leading children’s heart programs. They have extensive experience and exceptional teaching skills. Meet Our Volunteers!
Scholar exchange & continuing education
Heart to Heart sponsors physicians and nurses to learn best practices and specific surgical and clinical techniques at highly advanced centers in the U.S. We also sponsor our colleagues to attend international conferences and provide educational materials such as software, textbooks, and online journal subscriptions. In collaboration with our colleagues abroad, we actively encourage research projects, including abstract and manuscript production for international meetings. Heart to Heart promotes and participates in educational conferences at local, regional, and national levels.
In 2012, with funding from World of Children, Heart to Heart established the Nilas Young World of Children Traveling Fellowship. This annual fellowship enables Heart to Heart—in perpetuity—to bring aspiring pediatric cardiac specialists to the U.S. for training and education at leading children’s heart centers.
Our Program Model: Cost-effective, Replicable, and Scalable
Heart to Heart pioneered our education-based program model over 30 years ago with the goal of teaching and training emerging teams of pediatric cardiac specialists. Heart to Heart guides each team we train to develop a self-sustaining children’s heart center within 5-7 years from the beginning of our collaboration. Our teaching methodology includes utilizing each patient’s life-saving course of treatment to provide valuable learning opportunities for every member of the team-in-training. Heart to Heart’s approach is (1) data-driven, (2) education-based, (3) highly tailored to specific partner site needs, and (4) led by our expert medical specialists. Now, after 30 years, our program model has proven itself to be cost-effective, replicable, and scalable. Year after year, advanced pediatric cardiac specialists from leading U.S. children’s heart centers travel around the globe with us to transfer their knowledge and experience to develop life-saving programs in areas of need.
The Global Potential of our Program Model
Our model has great potential to address global health inequities in areas of need around the world where (1) physicians and nurses are ready, willing, and able to collaborate, and (2) local governments are able to invest in a long-term action plan to transfer skills and knowledge. Heart to Heart’s experience building Russia’s nationwide capacity to save children born with heart defects serves as our roadmap as we expand into Latin America. This same framework could also be of service to other humanitarians striving to improve and expand medical care for children globally.