CARDIOSTART INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED

Fixing Broken Hearts

aka CardioStart International USA   |   St. Petersburg, FL   |  www.cardiostart.org

Mission

OUR MISSION
A world where the underserved have access to cardiac care

OUR VISION

To educate and assist local medical teams in providing free heart surgery and comprehensive medical care to adults and children in underserved regions of the world.

CardioStart International aspires to provide greater hope and support to families with children and adults afflicted with heart disease in the underserved regions of the world by….
• Assisting in the development of advanced heart care and related specialties;
• Performing complex heart operations using the local facilities;
• Providing ongoing training and educational programs;
• Empowering local medical teams with the skills, equipment and means to increase the level of care for their patients

Notes from the nonprofit

After more than a year of lockdown for International Missions, we are making strides to return to the field. We utilized the year to review documents, assess our board and implement action plans. We assisted our host sites from abroad virtually and with shipments of containers. We helped locally with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to local US clinics and elder care facilities. In Peru, there was a need for ventilator supplies. We were able to ship the requested items to assist their COVID patients. Our first mission this year was a week from take off when Omicron hit the Brazil city of Macapa. The hospital was full and community banned from congregating. The mission was postponed to October. We won't be disheartened. We are packing trauma supplies for the Ukraine which have been shipped via air. A container has arrived in Ecuador to help a hospital in need. We are in the midst of team building for a pediatric Dominican Republic Mission in July. We persevere.

Ruling year info

2002

President and Founder

Dr. Aubyn Marath M.D.

Vice President

Ms. Janine Marie Henson R.N.

Main address

4905 34th St. S. Suite 114

St. Petersburg, FL 33711 USA

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Formerly known as

CardioStart USA Inc.

EIN

59-3679703

NTEE code info

Heart and Circulatory System (G43)

Birth Defects (G20)

Surgery (G9B)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is not required to file an annual return with the IRS because it is an arm of a state or local government.

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Programs and results

What we aim to solve

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Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Pediatric Heart Surgery in Dominican Republic

Following previous missions before the Covid shut-down CardioStart returns to the Dominican Republic to Clinica Corazones Unido Hospital in Santo Domingo. This one-week mission will focus on managing pediatric congenital Cardiac surgery and PEDIATRIC catheterization lab procedures. The Rotary Gift of Life DL7490 and Trinity International Missions and Heartcare Dominicana are providing vital support to help make these cases possible.
Twenty-four procedures are expected to take place in addition to outreach cardiac screening.

Other programs anticipated for this year include:
Virtual Critical Care Nursing Education in Nigeria and Nepal.
Echo Tech training in Nepal.
Ghana Adult cardiac surgical mission and pacemaker insertions.
Lagos Nigeria Adult Cardiac Surgery Mission.
Medical supply and equipment container shipments to: Lagos Nigeria, Santo Domingo D.R., Ukraine, Ecuador.


Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Economically disadvantaged people

In 2020, Dr. Mariano Brizzio, (Adult cardiac surgeon with CardioStart International) was invited to lead a mission to Legazpi, Philippines (Bicol Region) Bicol Medical Center to treat adults in need of heart care by the New Jersey Rotary District 7490/Gift of Life. Dr. Brizzio took on the challenge and built a team from Valley Hospital and Healthcare System, Ridgewood New Jersey. Additional team members were invited and vetted by CardioStart administration.Roughly, only 10% of the Philippine population have insurance to have cardiac procedures. The few government supported hospitals that assist these patients have massive waiting lists and those patients must pay.Twenty-one interventional cardiac procedures took place during the course of the two weeks. (11 PCI, 4 ASD closures, 3 PDA, 3 PCMV) Sixteen heart surgeries were performed by Dr. Brizzio and team. A grand total of 37 procedures in 9 days.

Population(s) Served
Young adults

Currently, in the country of Nepal there are no cardiac sonographers to assist cardiologists. This arrangement resembles the practice patterns in United States in the early 1960s and 1970s. Our mission is to train a group of nurses to become cardiac ultrasonographers. We believe that with expansion of cardiac ultrasound we will identify more patients in the country of Nepal who are eligible for medical or surgical intervention. There are many pockets of villages in distant areas of Nepal where it is difficult for a physician to leave the office and hospital to screen patients. The technicians trained study a full echo tech course book under the direction of senior skilled U.S. echo techs. They perform hands-on skill training during the course of the year. At the end of this training, a certification exam is performed to credential the students. Ongoing inservice training is offered to continue support.

Population(s) Served

Due to Covid shut-downs CardioStart had to pivot programming to meet the needs of mission recipients and to prepare in anticipation of return to international travel. CardioStart Volunteer Nurses, Masters and Bachelor prepared experienced nurses met with the Lagos Nigeria LASUTH nurses and physicians via Zoom weekly for a prepared critical care course. This is the first virtual course and much was learned in implementation. A full mission with hands-on training is expected in 2022.

This course will be replicated for nurses at the Nepal-Korean Friendship Hospital in Nepal.

Population(s) Served

Where we work

Accreditations

Charity Navigator 2010

Awards

Human Rights Award International Specialist Medical 2003

United Nations

Affiliations & memberships

Chamber of Commerce 2010

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of free open heart surgeries performed

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Economically disadvantaged people, Multiracial people, People of African descent, People of Asian descent, People of Latin American descent

Related Program

Teen and Young adult Heart Surgery in the Philippines

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CardioStart not only performs heart surgery to assist impoverished patients (both adult and pediatric), but provided teaching of local medical teams to continue their programs to care for patients.

Number of children who underwent open heart surgery

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Children and youth, Indigenous peoples, Multiracial people

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

CardioStart teams do separate adult and pediatric heart missions to train local teams to carry out surgery without team assist.

Total number of screenings held

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Adults, Indigenous peoples, Multiracial people

Related Program

Virtual Critical Care Nursing Education

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Cardiac Specific screenings and public health teaching is provided in communities that we serve through our surgical programs. These screenings include echocardiograms, ECG and physical exams.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

To provide at least 6 international medical missions per year to developing nations supporting or starting cardiovascular care centers.
Promote public health initiatives to prevent rheumatic heart disease.
Promote cardiovascular disease awareness, emergency treatment facilitation and prevention in developing nations.
To compile 10 years of a cardiovascular surgery database note outcomes and comparisons to developed nations.

Increase funding to provide program support and infrastructure in mission team building.
Develop virtual medical/nursing education to our partner countries.
Increase distribution of public health education in developing communities.
Build board strength and leadership to support strong mission and vision accomplishment.
Facilitate volunteer impact at our Tampa and Oregon warehouses to distribute equipment and supplies to our host countries.
Prioritize development of our interventional cardiology programs to meet the needs of host sites who are obtaining interventional catheterization laboratories.

We have a strong base for mission planning and impact over the last 35 years internationally in healthcare unstable environments. This experience has been formalized to improve our systems and standards. We have earned a place at the table with other organizations who provide similar humanitarian care. We have found the vast majority of our volunteers return for repeat missions and send their trusted colleagues. Other organizations have sent their volunteers to share in the CardioStart experience. Collaborating with other organizations is always welcome.

Our teams are specialists in the teaching and medical care they provide. Volunteers are screened and prepared to meet the needs of patients, families and staff culturally, physically and psychologically. Reviews performed after missions are taken seriously and utilized to improve systems to better meet the needs identified.

We promote sustainable programs by working directly with local government and hospital facilities. CardioStart works to facilitate contacts with vendors who can assist in providing needed supplies within their countries of origin.

The patient database we staff and complete on each mission is used to assess outcomes of the care we provide.

CardioStart is partnering with board building organizations to assist our mainly clinical board to learn board skills.



We have maintained a very low overhead with use of as many volunteers as possible yet low cost staff to supply strong consistency in charity programs.

Patient results appear to reflect as good or better results as developed nations. Research ongoing with plans for publishing results.

Database follow up being entered to provide results to reflect above.

Funding continues to be a struggle. We do not hire paid fundraisers. Our board is stepping up to meet the funding needs and fundraising of the organization.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We demonstrated a willingness to learn more by reviewing resources about feedback practice.
done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?

    Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.),

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve,

  • What significant change resulted from feedback?

    Assignment of charge nurses and mission coordinator to each mission.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    Our staff, Our board,

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection,

Financials

CARDIOSTART INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

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CARDIOSTART INTERNATIONAL INCORPORATED

Board of directors
as of 04/06/2022
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Dr. Philip Wendschuh

Northern Ohio Heart Centre

Term: 2010 -

Janine Henson

CardioStart International

Aubyn Marath, MD

CardioStart International

Phil Wendschuh, MD

Northern Ohio Heart Center

Richard Harper

Emergency Physician Locum Tenens

Rolando Rodriguez

Tampa General Hospital

Bill Zeman

Private Practice

Barbara Ferdman

Anesthesiologist consultant

Vinicius Nina

Director General of the University Hospital of the Federal University of Maranhão, University Hospital São Luis, Brazil

Emily Farkas

Associate Professor of Surgery Associate Director of Global Health in Surgery Indiana University School of Medicine Chief of Cardiac Surgery Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Medical Center

Jacqueline Cannavan

Esq. Private Practice

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 4/6/2022

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European

The organization's co-leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

Disability