Betting on a Winner

Choosing a racehorse to bet on usually comes down to a few factors: performance, the jockey’s skill and track conditions. The same holds true for philanthropy. Donors targeting their contributions also want to bet on a winner. The new Heart Institute at Johns Hopkins invites individuals and corporations to join our quest to cure heart disease.

For more than half a century, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s performance in cardiac care has been rock solid. Today, clinicians and scientists here continue to break new pathways in this field. They are performing operations that reshape the heart and avoid the need for a transplant. They are employing robotic arms to repair heart valves through the tiniest of incisions and working with heart pumps to keep heart failure patients alive. Using advanced radiology equipment, they are measuring vascular damage after a heart attack and even identifying dangerous plaque build-up before an event occurs.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins scientists are developing a battery-operated chest-compression device to perform CPR. They’re using gene therapy to convert heart muscle cells into natural pacemakers, and stem cells to form new blood vessels within dead heart tissue. And investigators with the Donald W. Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center here are gaining amazing insights about how to reduce sudden cardiac death.

To keep up with rapidly changing technology and new treatment priorities in cardiac care, Hopkins must constantly update its facilities. Because the costs of building a modern cardiac care facility are so enormous, we cannot do this alone. We need support from donors interested in helping shape the future of medicine; with our guarantee that when you support Johns Hopkins, you will know that you are betting on a winner.