The Favaloro Foundation is an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 scientific institution dedicated to medical teaching and research. It was founded in 1975 by René Favaloro

René Favaloro

Dr. René Gerónimo Favaloro was an Argentine cardiac surgeon who created the technique for coronary bypass surgery....

 with the support of the Cleveland Clinic in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 where Favaloro worked for many years.

History

After working in medical research at the Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic

The Cleveland Clinic is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The Cleveland Clinic is currently regarded as one of the top 4 hospitals in the United States as rated by U.S. News & World Report...

 in the United States Favaloro decided to create a department of Cardiovascular Surgery and Anatomy in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

.

In 1980 the Department of Teaching and Research (Departamento de Docencia e Investigación de la Fundación Favaloro) was founded and in the same year, in collaboration with the Department of Artificial Organs of the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

, Favaloro implanted the first artificial heart. Between 1980 and 1982 the collaboration continued and 16 transplants were carried out. The patients were monitored by COMDU (Cardiac Output Monitoring and Diagnostic Unit) in order to improve the medical assistance provided to patients with artificial hearts. The project was canceled in 1982 due to budgetary problems but the Basic Investigation Unit (División de Investigación Básica) continued working on other coronary problems.

Over the years the Departamento de Docencia e investigación changed its name to The Biomedical Sciences University Institute (Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Biomédicas) and the Basic Investigation Unit changed its name to the Institute of Basic scientific Investigation (Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Básicas). These projects eventually resulted in the creation of the Universidad Favaloro in 1998.

On June 2, 1992 the Institute of Cardiology and cardiovascular surgery (Instituto de Cardiología y Cirugía Cardiovascular) was inaugurated and on June 20, 1992 the first operation was carried out. Towards the end of the 20th Century the Favaloro Foundation became immersed in debt. For this reason on July 29, 2000 René Favaloro decided to commit suicide with a gunshot to the heart.

Since his death the foundation has survived partly thanks to the bequest left by Favaloro, to remain one of the most important cardiovascular research institutions in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

.

Declaration and principles

• Honesty
• Work with passion, strength and sacrifice without limits.
• Reject the influences of dogmatism, personal prejudice and agendas.
• Your contributions have value only when they are the product of free will without limits.
• Never neglect ethics and understand that they are necessary for the morale and the well being of the patients and their families.
• Remember that humility is necessary to work in a team, the sacrifice of the individual benefits the collective. The development of science demonstrates this. The individual was replaced by the collective a long time ago.
• You must sacrifice everything on the alter of the truth and nothing but the truth, always say what you think, nothing survives built on a foundation of lies.
• If you alleviate the suffering of other people and at the same time improve human knowledge the satisfaction will be greater.
• The basic subject of our work, and therefore the only beneficiary will be the patient.
• the only true prize comes when your soul feels, in the silence of reflection, the spiritual pleasure of a job well done.