Héctor Alfredo Deschle

I am a cardiologist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I am honored to stand as a candidate for Member at Large of the World Heart Federation. My motivation for this candidacy is rooted in a conviction that has guided my entire professional life: cardiovascular health is not merely a clinical outcome, but a fundamental human right, and achieving it demands direct action, strategic advocacy, and transformative education working together.

My career has been built at the intersection of clinical practice, institutional leadership, and academic work. I currently direct the Institute of Continuing Medical Education of the Argentine Society of Cardiology (SAC), where I served as President in 2022 and previously as Director of International Affairs. I am a Fellow of both the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology, and I was served as Governor of the ACC’s Argentine Chapter. I also co-direct the Inter-American Clinics guidelines program of the Inter-American Society of Cardiology (SIAC), a role that has placed me at the center of clinical and educational collaboration across Latin America — and has given me a close, firsthand understanding of the disparities in cardiovascular care that persist across middle-income countries and the Global South.

This is the experience I would bring to the WHF Board. My vision for the Federation rests on three interconnected pillars. The first is Direct Action: acting as a bridge between local expertise and global goals, ensuring that WHF policy is informed by the realities of diverse healthcare systems rather than a single model of care. The second is Strategic Advocacy through Equity: addressing the social determinants of cardiovascular disease — including gender diversity and socioeconomic inequity — as central, not peripheral, to reducing the global burden of CVD. My current doctoral research on gender-diversity awareness among newly graduated medical students reflects this same commitment to a multidisciplinary, inclusive approach to care. The third pillar is Transformative Education: I view medical education as the most sustainable form of advocacy, and I am committed to developing training frameworks that place prevention and equity at the heart of clinical practice for the next generation of physicians.

My scientific record — more than thirty peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on echocardiography, infective endocarditis, and structural and valvular heart disease, contributions to the Inter-American Society of Cardiology’s own textbook of cardiology, 160 conference presentations, and over sixty invited lectures across the Americas, Asia, and Europe — reflects a career built on sustained international engagement rather than isolated achievement.

I offer the World Heart Federation a combination of clinical rigor, organizational experience, and a genuine, working commitment to social justice in cardiovascular health. If elected, I am prepared to work tirelessly to advance the WHF’s mission, building the partnerships and pathways necessary to achieve true cardiovascular health equity — everywhere, for everyone.

Dr. Héctor Alfredo Deschle