The AHA’s vision is to provide a clearinghouse for AHA/ASA cardiovascular and stroke volunteer opportunities in the international arena, connecting the country/regional needs with the volunteers and resources to deliver the needed care or intervention.  Interventions could be as broad as acute care, prevention, education or training, including Telemedicine opportunities, in the cardiovascular or stroke area. One of AHA’s strengths is its ability to implement CVD and stroke programs at the ground level and this expertise would be tapped for these opportunities.

As a first step toward this vision, the AHA is working with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) to adapt their volunteerism initiative, Operation Giving Back, in developing an AHA international volunteer program for AHA health professional and lay volunteers. While recognizing that there are thousands of surgeons engaged in “giving back” to their local or global community, the ACS determined that there was a lack of comprehensive, relevant, timely resources available to them and largely, their collective contributions and impact were not known. In addition, a great many more of their members indicated a desire to engage in volunteerism but identified a variety of constraints ranging from lack of information, to logistics and regulatory considerations that prevented or delayed their participation. With the partnering of this program the AHA will broaden the scope for its own members to provide opportunities beyond the surgical setting.

For more information please visit: Operation Giving Back at www.operationgivingback.facs.org