More than 18 million people die each year from heart attacks and strokes

More than 18 million people die each year from heart attacks and strokes

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Resolve to Save Lives works to end preventable death from cardiovascular disease. Few global health organizations work in cardiovascular health, and fewer still work across both prevention and treatment.

There is a tremendous amount of work to be done—with limited political attention and scarce funding. Heart health hasn’t yet benefitted from the focused global action that has led to big improvements in infectious disease control.

Despite these barriers, we’ve supported our partners to save more than 7.5 million lives (and counting) since 2018 by focusing on three high impact interventions:

50%

30%

0%

100M

Together, these three strategies can save 100 million lives globally by 2050.

How we work

Resolve to Save Lives provides technical assistance and targeted investment to governments, civil society and technical partners to help countries improve the heart health of their people.

We work with global and local partners to develop cardiovascular disease prevention programs based on current evidence-based practices that address the needs of the population and the health system. Our global partners include the World Health Organization, John’s Hopkins University, the Global Health Advocacy Incubator, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Pan American Health Organization.

Most deaths from cardiovascular disease are in low- and middle-income countries–so that’s where we focus our attention.

Tools to take action

Explore our resource libraries for Hypertension Control, Sodium Reduction and Trans Fat Elimination.

WHERE WE WORK: CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

Our Latest Work

social media graphic with black background and white salt shaker in top right corner that replaces the traditional phrase "pass the salt" with "switch the salt" with the word switch in orange and the word pass crossed out. used to promote potassium-enriched reduced-sodium salt

“Reduced-sodium salts…are a great alternative to regular salt”

In a new op-ed for Health Affairs Forefront, Professor Bruce Neal, Executive Director for The George Institute for Global Health and our own Dr. Tom Frieden, President and CEO of…

Image of man holding aching heart in background. Headshot of RTSL director Dr. Indu Bhushan and CNBC-TV18 log

“India cannot afford to ignore the dangers posed by trans fats”

Dr. Indu Bhushan calls for strict enforcement of trans fat regulations to save an estimated 70,000 deaths per year in India.…
conference room group photo with members from RTSL, Nutrition International, WHO India, and the Iodine Global Network in the forefront and projector screen with title slide in the background

Balancing sodium reduction and iodine nutrition for heart health

Salt is often fortified with iodine, a necessary ingredient for health. But too much sodium, the main ingredient in salt, is bad for the heart. RTSL recently co-hosted a meeting…

image of Dr. Amit, Dr. Manika, Dr. Swati, and Dr. Murugunathan on stage for a panel discussion for the CARDIOBASE 2024 panel

Resolve to Save Lives at CARDIOBASE 2024

The RTSL India team, including Dr. Amit, Dr. Manika, and Dr. Swati, recently joined a panel discussion on ‘Unhealthy Diets and Cardiovascular Disease’ at CARDIOBASE 2024, moderated by Dr. Murugunathan.…

graphic template with screenshot of article and title "Text messages successfully bring patients back to care and help keep them there" with RTSL cardiovascular health heart logo and Journal of Human Hypertension publication logo.

Supporting consistent care with consistent communication

Missed appointments are a common barrier to keeping high blood pressure under control, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Staying in touch with patients through mobile text message reminders is…

2024 Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award

Our team received the 2024 Paul Dudley White International Scholar Award for an abstract on increasing usage of low-sodium iodized salt.…

Cardiovascular Health

Trans Fat Elimination