Heartbeats is a non-profit, peer-to-peer heart patient support and advocacy organization
representing people living with a broad spectrum of cardiovascular and cardiac
conditions.
Unlike many condition-specific charities or awareness organizations, Heartbeats has
developed as both a patient support network and a system-level advocacy voice for
cardiovascular patients within Aotearoa New Zealand’s evolving healthcare landscape.
Heartbeats supports and advocates for patients, and whānau, across multiple heart
condition cohorts, including heart failure, arrhythmias, structural heart disease, inherited
cardiac conditions, coronary artery disease, implanted cardiac device patients, and rare
heart disorders, such as cardiac amyloidosis.
While cardiovascular disease remains one of the largest contributors to mortality,
hospitalization, disability, and health system burden, heart patient advocacy and
consumer representation has traditionally been fragmented and under-developed relative
to oncology, blood cancers, and rare disorders.
In this context, Heartbeats occupies a distinctive and increasingly important role by
helping embed cardiovascular lived experience directly into clinical governance, pathway
development between secondary and primary healthcare, equity discussions, and
broader cardiovascular system design.