For over four decades, Children''s HeartLink has been dedicated to the prevention and treatment of heart disease in the developing world. Started during the Vietnam War, Children''s HeartLink has evolved through the years in an effort to have the greatest impact on children with heart disease. In the beginning, three Vietnamese children were sent by Dr. Frank Johnson Jr., a Navy physician in Vietnam, to his father Dr. Frank Johnson and his partner, Dr. Joseph Kiser, cardiovascular surgeons, on the staff of Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis. The hospital had agreed to provide the care free of charge. The children returned to Vietnam five months later and a new program was started called Children''s Heart Program. By the end of the war in 1975, Dr. Joseph Kiser assisted 67 children in coming to Minneapolis for treatment and the momentum of this effort resulted in 642 children from 23 countries receiving treatment in Minnesota between 1969 and 1993.
Changing Focus
In the early 1990''s Children''s HeartLink decided that it could make more of an impact on the lives of children at risk from heart disease by changing its approach. Instead of continuing to bring children to the U.S. for treatment, Children''s HeartLink focused on assisting existing cardiac programs to improve the quality and quantity of their services. This new commitment involved assisting cardiac programs with on and off site education, technical assistance and donated resources (funding, medical supplies, and equipment).
Providing Assistance
Children''s HeartLink considers providing assistance to a partner site in any area that would positively impact cardiac services for children from prevention services to tertiary care. This has lead Children''s HeartLink to provide assistance in a wide variety of cardiac program components ranging from the implementation of rheumatic fever prevention programs to support services like medical equipment maintenance, infection control programs, blood bank management, continuing education programs for ICU nurses. In providing assistance to a partner site Children''s HeartLink tries to be sensitive to resources available, overall needs, and what level of services are already provided. The goal is to help the site advance at a pace that is achievable and sustainable.
Education and Resources
Children''s HeartLink has evolved from measuring its success in terms of the number of children treated to a focus on infrastructure, quality and sustainability of existing cardiac programs. Technical assistance and education is the most important assistance Children''s HeartLink can offer to its partner sites. The provision of resources (funding for treatment expenses and critical medical supplies) is also important. Children''s HeartLink provides partial funding for some children treated during a medical mission in order to assure that most cases will be considered regardless of their ability to pay. Furthermore, Children''s HeartLink encourages sites to consider establishing a charitable foundation to help needy families. Such a commitment helps defray some of the costs and adds to future program accessibility for poorer patients.
Through out its history Children''s HeartLink has always been committed to collaboration. Children''s HeartLink has taken a leadership position in encouraging other "international cardiac outreach" programs to commit to more collaboration. This effort has lead to the establishment of a web site, periodic meetings, a directory of organizations and increased sharing of information and interaction.