HEART CARE INTERNATIONAL
Saving children's lives while building local cardiac-care capacity.
Heart Care International provides lifesaving care to children born with congenital heart defects in countries where specialized treatment is often unavailable to families without financial resources.
Its model combines direct medical care with ongoing training and education, enabling local physicians, nurses, and medical teams to build the expertise needed to care for more children over time.
What It Does
Heart Care International organizes volunteer medical missions that provide pediatric cardiac screening, catheterization, surgery, and follow-up care. It partners with host-country hospitals for multiple years and supplies medications, equipment, and other resources needed to safely treat children.
Education is central to the model. The organization trains local medical teams, supports specialty training, and uses webinars, patient teleconferences, consultations, and developing technology to extend collaboration beyond individual mission trips.
Why It Matters
Children with serious heart disease can often be treated successfully, but specialized cardiac care remains out of reach for many communities. Without treatment, correctable conditions can become fatal.
Heart Care International addresses the immediate need while helping host-country professionals build sustainable capacity for diagnosis, surgery, and postoperative care.
HRX8 Connection
Harvard '78 classmate Dr. Robert Michler founded Heart Care International and serves as its chairman.
Current Opportunity
As Heart Care International seeks to reach more children and strengthen its long-term programs, alumni support may help with:
Foundation relations, donor development, and grant writing
Medical and institutional partnerships
Communications, digital outreach, and broader visibility
Governance and connections that support sustainable program growth