Ali Oto
Candidate for Members at Large
Ali Oto
Candidacy Motivation and Relevance
As a strong believer of “Cardiovascular health for everyone”, I have served in the administration of national and major international scientific professional organizations (i.e as the Secretary General and President of the Turkish Society of Cardiology for two terms, Vice President and Chair of the Training Fellowship Committe and Education Committee of the ESC,Clinical Cardiology of the ISFC ) to fight against CVD during my professional life. I led the preparation of the “National Heart Health Document “ for the Ministery of Health as a 10 years strategic plan for cardivascular disease prevention in 2004. I developed the concept and organized the first Virtual Congress in Cardiology in 2007 and led the e-cardiology platform which has been a very popular online educational campus including over 600 educational videos and presentations(www.ekardiyo.com). I also led the big data analysis of the claim data base of the Turkish Government for 550.000 AF patients and based on the data proposed a new risk score system CHADS-F for stroke prevention in AF.
In a world with 18.6 million cardiovascular deaths per annum and 33.3 % of death originating from CVD we need to join forces to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease globally.We are aware that the impact of CVD is significantly higher in low and middle income countries.Indeed I am coming from a region where cardiovascular disease mortaility is higher and preventable cardiovascular risk factors are highly prevalent.Moreover cardiovascular mortality in women is very high in the Region. There are many things to be done in the region in the context of CV prevention.
The the preventable nature of the CVD gives us a big responsibility as cardiovascular specialists whichever site of the practice we are , no matter we are interventional cardiologist or heart failure specialist. The global cardiovascular community has also responsibility to fight against the disparities in the quality of cardiovascular care and preventive actions. The need for a strong and active WHF in global policy making to achieve healthy heart for everyone is much more than ever. Specific project based approaches seem to be reasonable in the current global economy.Covid 19 pandemic for example has been a real challenge for the global health . The expected tsunami of heart failure due to the involvement of the heart will be a significant threat for the heart health and it will be a focus for the WHF in coming years and we need to be ready for the developments. For this and other projects funding has become a critical issue and a need for new alternative sources other than Biannual Congress is foreseen .
Since the World Heart Federation is the leading voice in cardiovascular health it is my ambition to continue fight against CVD within the frame of WHF where I believe I would be able to contribute with my background, experience and capabilities.
I finish with the motto of the Turkish Society of Cardiology :“To the future with healthier hearts”.