A nonprofit health organization fighting heart disease and stroke through research funding, CPR training and cardiovascular quality improvement programs across the United States and globally.
The American Heart Association is a nonprofit voluntary health organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke through research funding, CPR and lifesaving training, and quality improvement initiatives for cardiovascular care. Founded in 1924 by six cardiologists, it is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization in its field and now employs over 3,300 people across the United States, alongside a global movement and more than 35 million volunteers and supporters.
Its work spans cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research, CPR and resuscitation training, clinical quality improvement, high blood pressure management and public health education. The organization trains 22 million people in CPR each year, and quality care initiatives for high blood pressure reach more than 19 million patients. As the largest non-governmental funder of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research after the federal government, it has invested more than $6 billion in research to date.
Since its founding, deaths from cardiovascular diseases have been cut in half - an outcome the organization attributes to its research-first premise that understanding disease leads to treatments. A century on from 1924, it describes its mission as building a world of longer, healthier lives, working through public health, healthcare, medical research and health education partnerships.
