Published August 13, 2024
In 2021, Children’s HeartLink embarked on a partnership with Medtronic Foundation aimed at transforming pediatric cardiac care worldwide. This multi-year, multi-country initiative engaged Medtronic employees and strategic funding to train more pediatric heart care clinicians and serve more children with congenital heart disease (CHD).
Globally, 90% of the 1.35 million babies born each year with CHD lack access to the heart care they need to survive and thrive. Children’s HeartLink invests in long-term partnerships with hospitals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to improve pediatric cardiac care programs, leading to increased access to high-quality heart care, so more children receive treatment and more preventable deaths are averted.
Celebrating improved outcomes for children with heart disease
Over three years, the $2.5 million Medtronic Foundation partnership helped Children’s HeartLink achieve significant milestones in health equity, innovation and sustainable growth. Key outcomes include:
Impact on children
GOAL: Provide heart surgery for 10,000 children, giving them the opportunity to survive and thrive.
This is a team of Mayo Clinic volunteers at GKNM Hospital with the Children’s HeartLink partner hospital team doing bedside training to improve the lives of children who undergo heart surgery.
SUCCESS: Surpassing initial targets, Children’s HeartLink hospital partners funded by Medtronic Foundation conducted 11,819 surgeries for children with congenital heart disease. These partners alone treated 1.8% of children needing surgery in India, Brazil, China and Vietnam. In addition, partner hospitals conducted 211,500 outpatient visits, further reducing disparities in access to quality heart care.
Hospital support
GOAL: Train 10,000 health care workers (pediatric surgeons and cardiologists, nurses and more) to provide heart surgery and quality outcomes, strengthening in-country hospital capacity.
The GNKM Hospital team at Amrita Hospital, Kochi for training. As a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence, Amrita Kochi serves as a regional trainer for their peers.
SUCCESS: Our training efforts resulted in 10,540 clinicians trained—more than 50% were trained by Children’s HeartLink Centers of Excellence.
Strategic growth and innovation
GOAL: Support Children’s HeartLink’s strategic growth and innovation, enabling the organization to scale in underserved countries—significantly increasing our impact between 2025 and 2030 by adding five new partner hospitals over three years.
Nhi Dong 1 became the first Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence in Vietnam. Committed to high-quality care, the hospital dramatically reduced the number of children on the waiting list for heart surgery throughout their journey to becoming a Children’s HeartLink Center of Excellence. From an average of 1,000 children waiting up to 3+ years for treatment, down to an average between 90-200 patients waiting only 1-3 months. 
Real Hospital Português (RHP) in Recife became a new Children’s HeartLink partner in 2023. Several team members visited their medical volunteers at Texas Children’s Hospital to observe best practices and a multidisciplinary approach to pediatric heart care.
SUCCESS: This partnership provided funding for four new hospital partners across targeted countries, in addition to funding existing hospital partnerships, and elevated two existing partners to Center of Excellence status, doubling our goal. We developed 11 new curricula, programs and technology, including transitioning a successful nurse training program into a virtual offering that can be scaled to train more nurses around the world. This partnership also allowed us to complete two studies being developed for future publication.
Sustainable impact
This partnership not only exceeded surgical and training targets but also laid the groundwork for future scalability and impact of hospital partnerships focused on further elevate pediatric cardiac care in LMICs.
Through strategic collaboration and these significant outcomes, the Medtronic Foundation partnership has helped Children’s HeartLink to transform pediatric cardiac care globally. This partnership has demonstrated the power of strategic philanthropy and healthcare innovation in saving lives and building sustainable healthcare systems worldwide.
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