Every moment of inaction is a lost opportunity to make a meaningful lasting impact on the cardiovascular health of individuals. Cardiovascular disease claims more than 18 million lives each year—each one a parent, a child, a friend, or neighbor—individuals with aspirations, contributions, and potential. Though we possess scientific tools both diagnostic and therapeutic to prevent most of these deaths, access to such interventions remains profoundly inaccessible in many parts of the world. The absence of even the most basic resources such as a blood pressure cuff or an electrocardiogram machine means that conditions go undiagnosed, untreated, and ultimately, become fatal. Life-saving medications remain out of reach, either due to scarcity or cost.
Education, diagnostics and therapeutics are inseparable pillars of survival. Delivering medicines without the means to diagnose disease in a timely manner is ineffective. Likewise, identifying illness without the tools to treat it is equally futile. A comprehensive approach, one that integrates both is not merely ideal; it is essential. And yet, despite the scale of the challenge, I remain profoundly hopeful. Let us envision a future within reach—where a patient in a rural clinic receives timely, effective treatment; where a mother in an underserved region routinely monitors her blood pressure; where no one dies for lack of a defibrillator, a diagnostic test, or a course of medication. That future is not aspirational, it is achievable. And it lies within our collective will to realize it. Together we can!
Finally, I would like to highlight a simple but profound truth that must guide our work: Where you live should not determine whether you live. With your collaboration, commitment, and resolve, we will transform this from a slogan into a global standard. Let this be our pledge and our shared purpose as we launch the Global Access to Cardiovascular Therapeutics and Diagnostics initiative: that every human in every corner of the world will have an equitable chance at a healthy heart and a full life. We owe this to one another and to the generations yet to come.
