2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

338424
Save a Childs Heart (SACH); Mending Hearts, Building Bridges


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 11:10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Bernard Goldman, CM, MD, FRCSC, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Aki Tamir, MD, Departments of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Israel
Lucie Pivnick, BA&Sc, MSc, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Ilan Cohen, MD, Departments of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Israel
Alona Raucher Sternfeld, MD, Departments of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Israel
Livia Kapusta, MD, PhD, Pediatric Cardiology Unit, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv University,, Israel
Lior Sasson, MD, Departments of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Wolfson Medical Center, Holon, Israel
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Objectives: SACH addresses cardiac care for children in developing countries by establishing a center of excellence  (WMC), creating partner referral sites and training medical teams to return to their communities to provide competent, sustainable local care. Of special interest is the cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Methods: The Heart of the Matter Project  (co-sponsored  by the EU, USAID, Israel Ministry for Regional Cooperation and the PA Ministry of Health ) improves cardiac care for children in the WB and Gaza, facilitates  improved interaction between PA and Israeli physicians, convenes seminars for PA doctors at WMC and trains PA medical  teams to build their own capacity for local cardiac care.

Results: SACH has performed surgery on >3,600 children from 48 countries, 50% from Iraq, Jordan, the PA and Gaza (even during conflict) with increasing children from Syrian refugee camps. SACH has examined >6,000 children from the PA and Gaza and operated on 1,750 Palestinian children. SACH has trained 21 medical personnel from the PA and currently is training a team for pediatric heart disease at the Palestine Medical Complex (PMC) in Ramallah under an agreement that will provide for referrals, partial funding and interactions between the PMC and the WMC. SACH also provides support and dialogue activity groups for caregivers (now >200) attending hospital with the children at WMC to ease anxiety an unfamiliarity.

Conclusions:  SACH responds to the challenges of cardiac care for children in remote regions by providing free services on a voluntary basis at the WMC in Israel: SACH is a model for a global humanitarian health care initiative. The Heart of the Matter Project is a similar model for regional cooperation in pediatric cardiac care.

Learning Areas:

Clinical medicine applied in public health
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
List two critical factors for sustaining a public health partnership between partners coming from adversarial communities or countries

Keyword(s): Pediatrics, International MCH

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been involved with the SACH program for 20 years (Chair, SACH Canada, and clinical researcher, teacher and mentor). I have trained10 or more Israeli heart surgeons and operated, lectured and taught at all major Israeli hospitals. I am Professor Emeritus at U of T, serve on the Global Surgery Committee. I published the book Mending hearts, Building Bridges. I have been editor of J. Cardiac Surgery and Heart Surgery in Canada.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3160.0: Ensuring Health and Public Health in a Region of Conflict