2022 Update:
The Cardiovascular Devices Hub (CVDHub), established with our funding, is now open. We look forward to seeing the impact this hub will have in our community.
Delivering outstanding care
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) affects thousands of people in East London and is the number one cause of death worldwide. In parts of London, CVD levels are some of the highest in England.
With our funding, we aim to help reduce rates of heart disease in our community. We also aim to help clinicians to develop new approaches for patients. We’re helping Barts Heart Centre deliver outstanding care to our communities, ensuring they’re among the first to benefit from innovations in cardiac medicine.
Funding extraordinary healthcare
Thanks to our supporters’ donations, our funding is helping:
- To fund the creation of the world-class Barts Heart Centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital;
- Clinicians to save lives through research into new approaches for heart patients
- Our local population access the highest quality care, through the combination of the best medical staff and best equipment all under one roof
"The people of North and East London continue to suffer appalling rates of cardiovascular disease. If the Centre lowers early mortality rates to European levels, then we could potentially save over 11,000 lives in the next five years."Charles Knight, Professor of Cardiology and Executive Director of the Barts Heart Centre
The difference we’re making
Patients and staff are already benefitting from equipment funded by Barts Charity, including two MRI scanners at the Barts Heart Centre.
Our £10.2m funding focuses on the following areas:
- Barts Clinical Trials Unit – enabling the Centre to support an extensive portfolio of trials
- Medical devices – specialising in medical devices for heart patients, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) “jackets” for monitoring electrical activity in the heart
- Drug treatments – new research into the heart-protective properties of inorganic nitrates – what’s thought to be responsible for the beneficial effects of green leafy vegetables
- Genomic medicine – aiming to identify the genetic causes of rare cardiac abnormalities
- Patient-generated data – developing a major new resource to support crucial research
- Setting up the largest cardio-oncology service in the UK and one of the top 10 in the whole world.
Our funding has also led to the successful recruitment of several leading cardiologists and cardiovascular researchers. One of the team has set up a cardio-oncology network, now the largest cardio-oncology service in the UK, enabling collaborations and training of fellows.