Our research strategy
Our research strategy outlines our bold ambitions for accelerating breakthroughs, so we can give more people healthier hearts for longer.
Our goals: Stop, Save, Support
Our goals set out our bold ambitions to help save and improve lives. Everyone at BHF will focus relentlessly on achieving them.
About our goals
Our strategy focuses on achieving 3 goals. Each addresses the major challenges we face in helping to save and improve lives from cardiovascular disease.
As a BHF team, we'll be united in our ambition to:
- Stop heart disease before it starts
- Save more lives from heart disease
- Support people with heart disease to live a longer, healthier life.
We know we can’t achieve these things alone. However, through our strategy we set out the unique role we will play. Raising funds to support cutting-edge research and innovation lies at the heart of achieving each one.
Read on to learn more about each goal.
1. Stop
We will stop heart disease before it starts
The challenge we face
For many, heart disease is preventable. Yet millions of people are at increased risk of heart disease and stroke in the UK and the number is growing. Conditions such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and obesity are creating a ticking time bomb of future ill health that threatens to devastate families and pile unsustainable pressure on our health systems.
What’s more, the prevalence of many of these conditions is significantly higher in our poorest communities. This makes them a major contributor to the UK’s widening health inequalities. But we can change this.
Our ambition for the UK
We believe it's possible for the UK to prevent 125,000 heart attacks and strokes by 2035.
Our role
Over the coming years, we will invest in cutting-edge research and innovation to revolutionise how we prevent and detect cardiovascular conditions like heart attack and a stroke. And we will use our influence to call on governments and health systems to implement changes that tackle the conditions that cause them, such as high blood pressure, raised cholesterol and obesity.
2. Save
We will save more lives from heart disease
The challenge we face
Over the last 60 years, UK death rates from cardiovascular disease have fallen by around 75%. This is one of the greatest success stories of modern medicine. And BHF has been at the forefront of making it happen.
Despite this progress, cardiovascular diseases – ranging from congenital heart defects that affect babies, to heart failure affecting grandparents – are still the leading cause of death worldwide. What’s more, progress in reducing premature deaths from cardiovascular conditions in the UK has ground to a halt. In some cases, it has even started to reverse.
The biggest injustice is that this is felt differently depending on where you’re born or live. People in the poorest parts of the UK are up to 3 times more likely to die young from cardiovascular disease than those in the most affluent.
Our ambition for the UK
We believe it's possible for the UK to reduce premature deaths from cardiovascular disease by 25% by 2035.
Our role
We will grow our investment in groundbreaking research, leading to advances in how we diagnose, treat and cure cardiovascular diseases. And we will continue to inspire a Nation of Lifesavers, trained in CPR, to give more people the best chance of survival if they have a cardiac arrest.
3. Support
We will support people with heart disease to live a longer, healthier life
The challenge we face
As people live longer and treatments improve, more people are living with life-limiting conditions, such as adult congenital heart disease, heart failure and vascular dementia.
In their severest forms, these conditions can make even the simplest tasks a huge struggle. They also place heartbreaking pressure on families, carers and our health systems.
Once again, those from the most disadvantaged parts of society are more likely to live in poor health for longer, often due to a heart condition. Our challenge today is about more than saving lives. It's about helping people live well for longer.
Our ambition for the UK
We believe it's possible for the UK to reduce healthy life years lost to cardiovascular diseases by 25% by 2035.
Our role
In the coming years, we will continue to invest in cutting-edge research, which could lead to treatments for conditions such as heart failure and vascular dementia.
And we will expand the information and support we offer – making it more accessible to people who need it, when they need it.
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How you can help
From raising funds for lifesaving research, to volunteering in our shops or campaigning with us, you can help us to save and improve lives.
Donating to us
1 in 4 people in the UK die from a cardiovascular disease. Your donations power research into lifesaving treatments and cures.