India

Aryan Saundane India is home to almost twenty percent of the global population and is often seen as a country of contrasts, like many developing countries. While major cities boast technological advancement and luxury, there is also a great deal of poverty and inequality.

Children's HeartLink is currently involved with five hospitals in four cities - Bangalore, Mumbai, Kochi and Hyderabad in order to help improve pediatric cardiac care for all. In 1999 Children's HeartLink made a commitment to the advancement of pediatric cardiac services in India.

Before 1999, when Children's HeartLink brought children to Minnesota for treatment, Children's HeartLink had already provided surgery for 16 children from the Calcutta area. Following an initial visit to India in 1998, it was evident that while there were already a number of world-class cardiac programs with well-trained physicians, there was insufficient medical capacity to care for the increasing number of Indian children suffering from heart disease. This was especially true for indigent children. It was also noted that even in the best cardiac programs all members of the cardiac team were not trained to the same skill level and those that were, particularly nurses, many time were lost to the more developed world.

Bangalore
Since its establishment in 2002, Children's HeartLink has supported the goals of Dr. Devi Shetty and his team at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in Bangalore to bring quality cardiac services to the children of the state of Karnataka and from all over India. The Narayana Hospital in Bangalore has become one of the centers of excellence for cardiac services in India. Where in the past Children's HeartLink has sent teams to work with Dr. Shetty's program, now Children's HeartLink supports very focused needs such as a teleconferencing program with the Mayo Clinic to improve cardiac nursing and funding and critical supplies for their charity patient commitment. Narayana Hospital is also considered a good training site for cardiac team members from other Children's HeartLink partner sites.

In support of Children's HeartLink's commitment to the prevention of heart disease, a project on rheumatic fever prevention in the state of Karnataka has been undertaken. In collaboration with the Department of Community Health of St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, and Dr. Edward Kaplan, a world authority on streptococcal diseases at the University of Minnesota, Children's HeartLink has supported the implementation of a pilot prevention program in both urban and rural village locations. While the first phase of the project involving an urban school for street children in Bangalore has been completed, implementation of the second phase in rural villages is currently pending.

Kochi
Children's HeartLink has supported Amrita Institute of Sciences (AIMS), a rapidly developing center of excellence in southwestern India since 2000. With its strong commitment to charity services, education, prevention and applied research, AIMS has been a good partner to work with. Children's HeartLink recent support has included off-site education, infection control consulting, charity patient support, consultation on post operative care of cardiac patients which also has involved an annual seminar on post operative issues for physicians from around southern India. Children's HeartLink has also supported a study to develop and test strategies for screening for congenital heart disease among newborns in underserved regions.

Hyderabad
Children's HeartLink's newest partner site is Innova Children's Heart Hospital. The hospital opened over a year ago and is the first heart hospital in India exclusively dedicated to children. In its first year the center has performed about 700 open heart operations and 800 interventional catheterization procedures with plans for the next year for these number to double. In July 2008, a team from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital led by Mohan Reddy. M.D., pediatric cardiac surgeon, traveled on an assessment visit to Innova. Children's HeartLink recently signed a multiple year commitment memorandum of understanding with Innova to assist the hospital in advancing pediatric cardiac services for the benefit of children.

Mumbai
In 2006, Children's HeartLink established a partnership with the Asian Heart Institute (AHI), a new cardiac hospital in Mumbai a city of 12 million without a strong pediatric cardiac service. The first cardiac team visit was conducted by a team from Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University and was led by Mohan Reddy, M.D. The second visit by this team in support of this developing pediatric cardiac program was in January 2007. Due to staffing problems at AHI this partnership is currently put on hold.