The National Heart Foundation of Australia: The first 21 years

Abstract

The treatment of cardiovascular disease has been one of the late 20th century's great success stories. Rising death rates in Australia in the 1940s and 1950s gave impetus to the movement for the establishment of a community-based heart foundation in Australia, an organisation that could marshal resources and provide leadership to the community in its fight against what appeared to be an epidemic. The new organisation, named the National Heart Foundation, became a reality in 1959, the third such community-based heart foundation to be formed worldwide. The hard work and vision of interested, community-minded citizens and members of the medical profession, together with the support of the Federal Government and the press, resulted in a highly successful initial appeal for funds in 1961. Following further appeals in 1969 and 1975, an annual fund-raising program was adopted and financial resources allocated on the basis of merit, to scientific and medical research programs. Other major projects initiated by the Foundation in the 1960s and 1970s included: the Australian Therapeutic Trial in Mild Hypertension; the collection of data on the extent and nature of disease (including a register of heart attack for the city of Perth in 1971–1972, and a register of cardiac surgery for Australia); and education and rehabilitation programs.