World Heart Day: a World Heart Federation enterprise promoting the prevention of heart disease and stroke across the world.

World Heart Federation: The Background In 1998, during the World Congress of Cardiology in Rio de Janeiro, the International Society and Federation of Cardiology became the World Heart Federation (WHF). This was not merely a change of name, but the realization of a global vision in cardiovascular health with new goals that are reflected in our mission statement, launched in 2001: “The World Heart Federation helps people achieve a longer and better life through prevention and control of heart disease and stroke, with a focus on low and middle income countries.” These new objectives led to fresh initiatives with a potential for global impact and established the WHF’s role as a leading international non-governmental organization, striving to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease worldwide. One early initiative involved collating information from member organizations in an attempt to highlight the global trends in cardiovascular disease, as well as assessing country capacity to respond to these challenges; this work was subsequently published as the “White Book”.1 The global importance of heart disease and stroke was further emphasized in publications by other authors, such as The Global Burden of Disease2 and the World Health Organization’s World Health Report 2002, subtitled Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life.3 The WHF works closely with the World Health Organization (WHO); the key contribution of the WHF is to bring scientific developments and practical recommendations to the attention of physicians, health workers, patients, and the public. The WHF is well placed to achieve this objective, with a membership made up of professional societies and foundations. There are 90 national societies of cardiology, 4 continental societies of cardiology, 54 heart foundations, and 4 continental heart networks. Foundations are charitable bodies or groups of committed persons within countries who represent patients and the public. There is an increasing realization across the world that success in advocacy and preventive programs requires support not just from governments and health authorities, but also from patients and the public. Failure to convince the public dooms any preventive initiative. Patient action groups are increasingly motivated to make their views known to politicians. The WHF is also structured to promote advocacy, education and training, and research. The Scientific Advisory Board promotes global collaboration by bringing together international societies that have an important interest in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Examples include societies or organizations concerned with hypertension, atherosclerosis, basic science, pharmacology, and pediatrics; it is intended that additional societies will participate in the future. Some topics, such as epidemiology, rheumatic fever, and clinical cardiology, are dealt with by the councils of the WHF. The World Heart and Stroke Forum, currently chaired by Sidney Smith, is a “parliament” that brings together the leaders of both health-related organizations and the many bodies in civil society who have a right to speak on the prevention of heart disease and stroke. This allows the participation of the World Bank, industry, charities, grantgiving bodies, and the representatives of other groups with different skills, such as expertise in nutrition, behavioral science, health economics, and health service delivery.