The Boston Cardiac Foundation (BCF) marked its 14th annual charitable golf tournament at the Bellevue Golf Club in Melrose, Massachusetts, gathering 70 golfers alongside more than 100 supporters, medical professionals, and community leaders. The charity outing raised critical operational funds while formally introducing five new members to the foundation’s Board of Advisors: Dr. Manju Sheth, Partha Ghosh, Pramod Pandey, Veena Handa, and Dr. Aman Kalra. Led by Dr. Salil Midha, Chief of Cardiology at MelroseWakefield Hospital, BCF has completed over 1,000 free cardiac procedures across six developing nations over its 35-year history. Moving forward, the foundation is expanding its strategy beyond direct surgical intervention toward long-term medical education, including advanced cardiac pacing training and a large-scale community CPR program scheduled to launch in Haryana, India, in October 2026.
MELROSE, Mass. — On a crisp autumn morning at the historic Bellevue Golf Club, the Boston Cardiac Foundation (BCF) convened its 14th annual fundraising golf tournament, bringing together 70 registered golfers and over 100 donors, healthcare executives, and community advocates. The annual gathering serves as the primary financial engine for BCF’s international humanitarian missions, which deliver specialized cardiac treatments, advanced medical technology, and clinical training to impoverished regions across the globe.
This year’s event raised vital funds through a series of competitive events, including a precision putting contest, an air-cannon drive, and a ceremonial helicopter golf ball drop, culminating in an evening reception and dinner at the club. Beyond the links, the tournament marked an operational turning point for the non-profit organization as it formalized the expansion of its leadership council and signaled a strategic evolution toward sustainable medical education in the Global South.
Expanding Leadership and Operational Scale
A central milestone of the evening program was the formal induction of five distinguished professionals to the foundation’s Board of Advisors: Dr. Manju Sheth, Partha Ghosh, Pramod Pandey, Veena Handa, and Dr. Aman Kalra. The newly appointed advisors bring diverse expertise across medicine, corporate management, philanthropy, and international business development as BCF seeks to scale its humanitarian architecture.
The foundation’s core mission addresses a severe global imbalance: access to advanced cardiovascular interventions remains largely concentrated in high-income nations, leaving millions of patients in developing countries without life-saving technology. According to global health metrics, cardiovascular diseases account for nearly 18 million deaths annually, with over 75% occurring in low- and middle-income countries where specialized electrophysiology labs and trained personnel are extremely scarce.
Over more than three decades, volunteer contingents composed of cardiologists, electrophysiologists, cardiac nurses, and biomedical technologists have traveled internationally under the BCF banner. These teams carry equipment, instruments, and cardiac devices directly into host hospitals, executing diagnostic workups and complex procedures at zero financial cost to impoverished patients.
Under the clinical direction of Dr. Salil Midha—who serves as Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at MelroseWakefield Hospital—the foundation has completed more than 1,000 surgical procedures. These interventions primarily involve the implantation of cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), and complex lead placements for individuals suffering from complete heart block, severe bradycardia, and advanced heart failure.
BCF’s volunteer medical deployments have established recurring footholds in six countries: India, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti, Paraguay, and Cape Verde. In Haiti, where health system infrastructure has faced severe systemic disruptions, BCF maintains a bi-annual presence to provide ongoing pacemaker evaluations, battery replacements, and new device implantations.
Public-private supply chain partnerships remain integral to sustaining these operations. Medical technology manufacturer Medtronic has donated more than $4 million in specialized cardiac devices, leads, and surgical supplies to support BCF missions. Additionally, local clinical representatives from Medtronic and Abbott routinely volunteer technical expertise, assisting medical teams with device programming, diagnostic calibration, and remote patient monitoring setups during field deployments.
Strategic Pivot: High-Tech Clinical Mentorship
While direct surgical intervention was historically the principal focus of BCF deployments, the foundation has increasingly redirected its resources toward local physician education and institutional knowledge transfer. This strategy aims to ensure that host medical institutions retain independent, long-term capacity after international volunteer teams depart.
This educational framework was highlighted during a major BCF medical deployment in February 2026 across health centers in New Delhi and Meerut, India. Over the course of the week-long deployment, BCF clinicians worked alongside local specialists at partner institutions—including Jaswant Rai Specialty Hospital in Meerut, Sitaram Bhartia Hospital in New Delhi, and Global Hospital in Mount Abu.
The February 2026 deployment focused on teaching advanced electrophysiology procedures, specifically left bundle branch pacing (LBBP)—a novel pacing technique that directly engages the heart’s native conduction system to achieve more natural, synchronized ventricular activation compared to traditional right ventricular pacing.
The visiting faculty included Dr. Leon Ptaszek, an electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), who led hands-on surgical workshops. Working shoulder-to-shoulder in catheterization labs, the combined team performed complex single- and dual-chamber pacemaker installations, ICD implants, and LBBP procedures, training local fellows and attending physicians in real-time intraoperative decision-making.
The February deployment represented the 46th international medical mission led by Dr. Midha. The historical track record of the team includes a milestone in 2011, when Dr. Midha and his clinical staff were recognized in the Limca Book of Records after successfully implanting 11 charitable pacemakers within a single 24-hour period at a hospital in India.
Community-Level Prevention and Emergency Response
Recognizing that advanced surgical interventions address only the acute end of the cardiovascular disease spectrum, BCF is launching a parallel initiative in primary prevention and emergency response.
In October 2026, the foundation will launch a multi-city Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) education initiative at Arpana Hospital in Karnal, located in the state of Haryana, India. The initiative will deploy volunteer instruction teams from medical centers in Boston, Seattle, and Hyderabad.
The program is structured to train both healthcare professionals and non-medical community members using standardized American Heart Association guidelines. Instructors will deliver hands-on, mannequin-based training on early cardiac arrest recognition, high-quality chest compressions, rescue breathing, and the operation of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
By targeting rural community health workers and local residents alongside hospital nursing staff, BCF aims to establish a sustainable chain of survival in semi-urban and rural districts where emergency medical service response times can be prolonged. Following its inauguration at Arpana Hospital, foundation organizers plan to replicate the standardized CPR curriculum across secondary urban centers in northern and southern India.
With an expanded advisory board, strong corporate supply partnerships, and a dual-track strategy combining advanced electrophysiology mentorship with broad community resuscitation training, the Boston Cardiac Foundation is positioning its regional fundraising efforts to support a broader paradigm in global cardiovascular health.
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