About
For more than 70 years, Heart & Stroke has led the fight against heart disease, stroke and vascular cognitive impairment. We’re driving life-saving medical breakthroughs and uniting the brightest minds to improve diagnosis, care and support for Canadians.
We are 95% funded by donors.
Donations like yours ensure we beat heart disease and stroke by:
- Investing in life-saving research and support heart and stroke researchers.
- Empowering and supporting people to take control of their health.
- Partnering with volunteers, donors, researchers, clinicians and people affected by heart conditions, stroke and vascular cognitive impairment to have the greatest impact.
- Advocating to governments to invest in programs, public awareness campaigns and public policies that make healthy choices become easy choices.
Our critical priorities:
- Improve survival rates and systems of care for people living with heart disease and stroke.
- Advance research to better support people living with heart failure.
- Address the increased need for congenital heart disease
- Advocate to leaders and decision makers to change policies.
- Advance health equity by:
- Dismantling the systemic inequities that threaten women’s heart and brain health.
- Working with Indigenous leaders and communities to improve health outcomes for Indigenous peoples.
- Increasing representation of Black and Indigenous trainees within the heart and brain health sciences by providing support and funding.
Beat heart disease. Beat stroke. Beat as one.
Our Impact
The death rate from heart disease and stroke has declined more than 75% over the past 60 years. But there is much more to do.
In 2002, we:
Invested in life-saving research.
- A pacemaker innovation led by Dr. Jacqueline Joza that could prevent heart failure
- A breakthrough discovered by Dr. Ren-Ke Li that can regenerate damaged tissue after heart attack
- Progress against challenges such as high cholesterol and atrial fibrillation
- Donor gifts supported the first ever $5 million Heart Failure Research Network grant
Championed change to beat health inequity.
- $10 million in funding went toward women’s heart and brain health research
- Our HeartSmart Kids™ program, reached more than 450 educators and 14,000 Indigenous students and families in 334 schools and community settings across Canada.
Saved lives.
- Our network of over 8,500 instructors trained more than 360,000 people on emergency cardiovascular care and first aid.
- We developed a team-based, gamified CPR and AED learning program to help people respond quickly to cardiac arrest.
Learn more about what we’re fighting for.