Strengthening Health Systems Archive

As a member of the Workplace Wellness Alliance, a consortium launched at the World Economic Forum to advance workplace health and productivity, Medtronic is exchanging knowledge and learning with other companies to expand the reach and impact of effective workplace wellness programs. 

Total Health, our own workplace wellness program, proactively addresses preventable disease by looking at risk factors, including poor diet, smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and lack of exercise. Through the program, we seek to improve employee health, well-being and productivity; reduce absenteeism; and save millions of dollars in healthcare costs annually.

Total Health provides Medtronic employees with access to health screenings; weight loss, nutrition, exercise and smoking cessation classes; organized sports teams; flu shots; walking programs; and health fairs. Medtronic is also in the process of rolling out a global health & wellness website customized by location and adapted for local cultural norms and regulations, with lifestyle improvement programs and health coaching for employees.

An unprecedented initiative, the Medtronic Foundation HeartRescue Project assembles leading U.S. emergency and resuscitation experts with a goal to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates by at least 50 percent within pilot states of Arizona, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.

The HeartRescue Project's select non-profit partners will promote a recognized, replicable, and measurable model that coordinates training and technologies for the general public, first responders and EMS, as well as effective post-resuscitation care in the hospital, to maximize survival rates.

While it has been virtually eradicated in developed countries, rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is one of the most preventable, yet prevalent, neglected NCDs of the poor, with 200,000 deaths occurring annually in Africa alone. Grants from the Medtronic Foundation to the World Heart Federation, Public Health Foundation of India, Bienmoyo Foundation, Rwanda Heart Foundation, WiRED and the University of Cape Town in South Africa support awareness, early diagnosis and prevention efforts for RHD.

For example, funds to the Bienmoyo Foundation will support the screening and early diagnosis of more than 6,000 school children for strep throat and signs of Rheumatic Fever or RHD, as well as educational and awareness intitiatives, within the Manyara region of Tanzania. This effort will be complemented with health initiatives to ensure care for those identified with signs and symptoms.

Medtronic Foundation grants also support advocacy and awareness among policy makers and health professionals; and the development of best practices for screening, treatment and follow up of patients identified with Rheumatic Fever or Strep Throat.

The Medtronic Foundation works closely with the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business at Medtronic on donations of pacemakers to Solidarity Bridge, a nonprofit organization working in Bolivia.

The Foundation complements these donations with grants to Solidarity Bridge that enable the organization to build capacity and to address Chagas Disease, a neglected disease that results in heart failure and is prevalent in Latin America. Learn More