Team Heart

In 2023, Team Heart partnered with the rwanda ministry of health, rwanda biomedical center, and, and american college of surgeons with king faisal hospital on building a sustainable cardiac surgical program. Team Heart traveled on 4 trips to provide direct care, and transfer skills in surgery, critical and icu nursing. Throughout the year the nursing volunteer Team led initiatives to provide consistent education through online mentoring, leading to the creation of a self-directed icu nurse orientation. Twenty- four patients received direct surgical care with 36 donated valves. Through our commitment to support cardiology screening in the absence of a cardiologist sent abroad for one year for training, we traveled on 6 surgical screening trips and provided nurse-directed echo skills at 7 sites. This program led to the request in november to commit to five sites in 2024 to strengthen cardiac care in the community, further strengthening our role. Team Heart volunteers presented at four international meetings and have five active irb proposals. They include; a. The impact on pregnancy in patients with mechanical valves, b. The cost-effectiveness of surgery in resource-poor settings, c. the effectiveness of image storage and sharing to improve knowledge of ncd providers d. effect of rhd nurse education in health centers. E. effectiveness of self-guided learning for icu orientation.