World Heart Federation Salim Yusuf Emerging Leaders Programme Think Tank Seminar

Between 14 and 18 October, 25 participants from 18 countries attended the 6^th World Heart Federation (WHF) Emerging Leaders Programme think tank seminar at Missenden Abbey, Buckinghamshire. So far, the programme has trained 150 participants from over 50 countries, over half of whom are from low-middle income countries (one fifth from Africa), and over half women. Each year the seminar is in a different location, and on a different topic relating to implementation science in cardiovascular disease prevention. Dr Ami Banerjee, Institute of Health Informatics, chaired the programme, and this year, the topic was “Heart failure and digital health”. During the week, Emerging Leaders received a tailored training programme and had to produce a seed-funded group project. The seminar was very successful and attended by two WHF past Presidents (Professor Salim Yusuf, McMaster University, and Professor David Wood, National University of Ireland, Galway), current WHF President (Professor Karen Sliwa, University of Cape Town) and WHF President-elect (Professor Fausto Pinto, University of Lisbon). The seminar culminated in a “Policy and Heart Failure” session at the British Heart Foundation headquarters in London, where Professor Harry Hemingway, Director of the UCL IHI, was the plenary speaker. A rich debate regarding the role of electronic health records and digital health in advancing heart failure care, particularly in low-income settings ensued.

The WHF Emerging Leaders scheme 2020 will be open for applications in the next 1-2 months. For more details, please contact Andreea Dragus  (Andreea.Dragus@worldheart.org ) and monitor the WHF website, or contact Dr Ami Banerjee (ami.banerjee@ucl.ac.uk)