American Heart Association
The American Heart Association grew out of a set of smaller precursor groups. The primary precursor was the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease, formed in New York City in 1915, to study whether patients with heart disease could safely return to work. Several similar organizations formed or evolved in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago in the 1920s. Recognizing the need for a national organization to share research and promote findings, the American Heart Association was formed in 1924 by six cardiologists representing several of these precursor groups.
Valentin Fuster
A national program developed by Fuster when he was President of the American Heart Association, having two objectives in mind: 1) To engage potential young researchers with volunteer senior investigators of the AHA, offering as such, free tutorship or mentorship; the success stories of this approach are many. 2) To reinvigorate the Junior-Senior investigator relationships through and annual meeting, the Saturday preceding the Scientific Sessions of the AHA; the yearly attendance counts in the hundreds.