title: Mending Hearts and Building Bridges: The Save a Child's Heart Foundation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Save a Child's Heart addresses the challenges of heart care for children in underdeveloped countries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Save a Child's Heart has created a center of excellence for pediatric cardiac care at the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel, helped develop partner sites for evaluation and referral, and trained medical teams to return and build their own capacity for local cardiac care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Save a Child's Heart has treated more than 3600 children from 48 countries, with 50% from Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Syria. In cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, Save a Child's Heart has examined more than 6000 children and treated 1750 children, trained 21 medical personnel, and conducted seminars for Palestinian medical personnel. The "Heart of the Matter Project," funded by the European Union, US Agency for International Development, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation, is currently training a team at the Wolfson Medical Center from the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah and provides funds for Palestinian children's care in Israel.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Save a Child's Heart is a model of a global humanitarian health care initiative with a single focus on heart disease in children. The "Heart of the Matter Project" is a model of health care based on regional cooperation despite local political tensions.
authors.affiliation: Save a Child's Heart, Holon, Israel (Drs Sasson, Tamir, Houri, and Kapusta); Cardiothoracic Surgery Department (Dr Sasson), Pediatric Cardiology Unit (Dr Tamir), and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (Dr Houri), Wolfson Medical Center affiliated with Sackler School of Medicine, Holon, Israel; Departments of Orthopedics (Dr Betawe) and Cardiac Surgery (Dr Darwazah), Palestine Medical Center, Palestinian Authority, Ramallah; Pediatric Cardiology Unit, The Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel (Dr Kapusta); Children's Heart Center, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands (Dr Kapusta); Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (Ms Pivnick); and Division of Cardiac Surgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Dr Goldman).
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sasson
authors.forename: Akiva
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamir
authors.forename: Sion
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Houri
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Betawe
authors.forename: Ahmad K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Darwazah
authors.forename: Livia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kapusta
authors.forename: Lucie E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Pivnick
authors.forename: Bernard G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Goldman
mesh_terms: D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003906:Developing Countries; D005582:Foundations; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D007557:Israel; D017146:Models, Organizational; D010372:Pediatrics; D016896:Treatment Outcome