German Heart Foundation
| German Heart Foundation (DHS) |
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|---|---|
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| Purpose: | Development, implementation and promotion of measures to educate about the dangers of cardiovascular diseases as well as their prevention and treatment |
| Chair: | Dietrich Andresen |
| Managing directors: | Martin Vestweber |
| Consist: | since 1979 |
| Balance sheet total: | 43,508,385 EUR (2019) |
| Seat: | Frankfurt am Main |
| Website: | www.herzstiftung.de |
The German Heart Foundation e. V. is a patient organization in the field of cardiovascular diseases . The association, based in Frankfurt am Main , was founded in 1979 by cardiologists ; it has 107,800 members (as of June 2020). Barbara Genscher has been the patron of the German Heart Foundation since 1987 . The long-term goal of the organization is to significantly reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in Germany and to improve the quality of life of heart patients.
Publications
The heart foundation medium with the greatest reach (350,000 subscribers) is the patient newsletter. In addition, the Heart Foundation publishes the magazine “Herz heute” four times a year with a circulation of 160,000 copies and the “herzblatt”, the magazine on congenital heart defects, with a circulation of 5,000 copies. Since 2012, the Heart Foundation has also acted as the publisher of the German Heart Report , following on from the Heart Report published by Ernst Bruckenberger until 2011.
Focus of work
The organization is committed to educating the general public about a healthy lifestyle, the possibilities of disease prevention and treatment, it informs about new developments in cardiovascular medicine and supports self-help groups. Another focus of work is the promotion of cardiovascular research in conjunction with the German Foundation for Heart Research . This was established in 1988 as a subsidiary of the German Heart Foundation. With its Children's Heart Foundation for children with congenital heart defects and their parents , the German Heart Foundation supports the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and the rehabilitation of adult patients .
organization
The board currently has nine members, and the cardiologist and emergency physician Dietrich Andresen has been the chairman since June 2018. All board members work exclusively on a voluntary basis.
Since 1980 the association has had a scientific advisory board with more than 500 members (as of March 2020), which includes numerous clinicians and scientists from the fields of cardiology, cardiac surgery and pediatric cardiology in Germany.
The association works closely with the German Society for Cardiology - Heart and Circulatory Research , the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology and the Federal Association of Resident Cardiologists . He is also the official representation of Germany in the European Heart Network, the umbrella organization of the European heart foundations, and a member of the World Heart Federation , the international community of cardiological specialist societies and heart foundations.
Projects and activities
In the past, the association has started several nationwide awareness campaigns, for example the heart month "Valvular heart disease and anticoagulation" or the heart week "If a heart attack is suspected: 112 immediately".
Every year around 2,000 inquiries are answered by the information service during written consultation hours. In addition, there is a telephone consultation hour twice a month, which was used by almost 700 callers in 2018. The answers for members are given by cardiac specialists and cardiac surgeons. The Heart Foundation also organizes heart seminars, lectures and health days. At the Children's Heart Foundation, the main focus is on doctor-parent seminars, sports projects and an information service. To prevent heart disease, there are prevention projects such as the skipping rope project “Skipping Hearts” in elementary schools, the promotion of non-smokers or Mediterranean cuisine in company and commercial kitchen catering.
In the area of research funding annual scholarships are awarded to young scientists, the Wilhelm P. Winterstein Award awarded and projects funded, such as the German Aortenklappenregister (GARY) in which operational and catheter-based interventions for aortic - replacement are recorded and analyzed to determine the Ensure patient safety and the quality of treatment. Further research funding takes place in conjunction with the German Heart Research Foundation. In 2018, research projects in the field of cardiovascular diseases were funded with a total of € 2.50 million.
In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, the Heart Foundation closely issued a series of guidelines on COVID-19 / coronavirus-related topics for cardiovascular patients, including a warning against taking chloroquine and / or azithromycin prematurely, brought up by a French researcher and US President Trump as COVID-19 therapy because of the risk of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias. Due to the concern that during the corona pandemic, 112 will be dialed less often, even in cardiovascular emergencies, the Heart Foundation has pointed out that if you suspect a heart attack or other heart emergencies you should not hesitate now, but rather call 112 immediately. In addition, a scheme adapted to the COVID-19 situation for the resuscitation of cardiovascular arrest by laypeople was published, together with the request not to shy away from the often life-saving chest compressions.
COVID-19 will also be a topic of the Heart Weeks 2020 (November 1st to 30th). In order to answer urgent questions from cardiovascular patients during the corona pandemic, the Heart Foundation organized a video consultation with cardiologists Thomas Meinertz (Hamburg) and Thomas Voigtländer (Frankfurt), the recording of which is still available.
In April 2020, special funding of 1 million euros was made available for near-patient projects to research the connections between COVID-19 and cardiovascular diseases, which are to be awarded in an accelerated process.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Board of the German Heart Foundation , Heart Foundation website; accessed July 7, 2020
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i German Heart Foundation: Annual Report 2019 , June 2020, accessed July 7, 2020
- ↑ Heart Foundation Patient Newsletter
- ↑ Heart Today
- ↑ Herzblatt online
- ^ Website of the German Heart Foundation , accessed on December 18, 2011
- ↑ Coronavirus: Information for people with cardiovascular diseases , press release of the German Heart Foundation , March 5, 2020
- ↑ Thomas Meinertz: Corona: How to protect yourself as a heart patient from a severe course , website of the Heart Foundation , April 10, 2020
- ↑ Do not stop taking heart medication such as ACE inhibitors and sartans because of the coronavirus! , Press release of the German Heart Foundation , March 19, 2020
- ↑ Coronavirus: Do anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen and ASA increase the risk of COVID-19 infection? , Press release of the German Heart Foundation , March 19, 2020
- ↑ Warning against premature use of chloroquine-azithromycin combination therapy against COVID-19 infections: risk of malignant arrhythmias , press release of the German Heart Foundation , March 25, 2020
- ↑ Corona pandemic and heart emergencies: If you suspect a heart attack, don't be afraid to call 112 , press release from the German Heart Foundation , March 20, 2020
- ↑ Resuscitation in Corona times: Don't be afraid of life-saving chest compressions! , Press release of the German Heart Foundation , May 5, 2020
- ↑ Heart Weeks 2020 - The weak heart, press release of the German Heart Foundation , April 14, 2020
- ↑ Video consultation: What you as a heart patient need to know about Corona. Retrieved May 2, 2020 .
- ↑ German Heart Foundation provides 1 million euros for research to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus , Heart Foundation website , April 2, 2020