“THOSE OF US WHO HAVE HAD THE LUXURY TO BE GIVEN 2 CELLS IN THE BRAIN THAT WORK, HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO DO SOMETHING CREATIVE FOR SOCIETY”

Dr. Valentín Fuster

PUBLIC HEALTH
Cardiovascular diseases were once considered a problem that only wealthy nations faced, but now they now rank as the leading cause of death across the globe.

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One of the big problems in global health is that most of it is descriptive. There are no randomized studies. In spite of all the research and in spite of all the consults with patients or families, doctors and scientists simply don’t have compliance with physical activity, diet, taking your medicines, …  etc.
Dr. Fuster’s idea is that, if we can intervene at a very early age, … we will be able to create a group of adults who do comply.

HOW TO CHANGE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR GLOBALLY
The question from Dr. Fuster’s Vision arises again: How can we change human behavior to prevent disease? Dr. Fuster has the perfect diagram to explain how this may be done through education.

HEALTH is like a car with a motor engine which is SCIENCE. This motor engine has to be supplied with gasoline and this is EDUCATION. So through education is how we move from CHILDREN to ADULTS, to the FAMILY and to COMMUNITIES. It’s the education that matters.
We therefore believe EDUCATION is the key for a changing behavior and as a result it is probably the key for a huge change to global health.
Dr. Fuster’s goal is to develop scientific concepts for global Models that work in different regions of the world to promote long term health behavior, so that then Governments can take action to really promote health at a much larger scale.

CONCEPTS & PROGRAMMES
So, as soon as Dr. Fuster and Dr. Marilyn Hunn were able to put a scientific group together out of Mount Sinai, they got into developing countries to test wether or not they could in fact make a difference in stopping  cardiovascular disease by promoting health programmes through scientific concepts, rather than preventing disease.
In Dr. Fuster’s words: “All diseases of the heart have a science behind them, we have to understand why a disease develops. The same happens with health. We have to understand what it takes to prevent the disease and to lead to health.”

DONATIONS
Over the last decade, Dr. Valentin Fuster has been fighting the heart diseases worldwide epidemic, as both a scientist and a clinician. “We need to learn to fight. It makes you strong through difficulties” says Dr. Fuster.
It has not been an easy task in the past and it is still not easy at present. It means an enormous amount of motivation in researchers, scientists, clinic doctors and also patients. Absolute scientific rigor and discipline throughout the model proving process in which many scientific, clinic and operations teams are involved, not to mention all the technology adaptation, personnel training, publishing and contacts with health authorities globally that must be made at every new development or learning.
This is why the Valentin Fuster and Mount Siani Foundation actively looks for donations to fund the global scientific projects that are becoming Models of health behavior in Children, Families, Adults, Communities and finally Territories, to ensure improved health behavior patterns that are to gradually substitute heart diseases treatment.
Enterpreneurs wanting to dedicate part of their funds to make an impact globally should not think this is an impossible task.  On the contrary. Impact is socially feasible and necessary through scientifically proven Models.
“If you don’t have support from the political sphere it is difficult to penetrate seriously into population studies” says Dr. Fuster. It is an honor to acknowledge that Governments like Colombia or Mexico are within the first to adopt in all their Territories, successful Models developed by Dr. Fuster’s scientific teams, once these have then been published in top scientific journals and proven to have an impact transcending their original local presence.