Strategy and governance
Our strategic priorities
Our strategy sets out how we will achieve our vision of reducing the global burden of Pulmonary Vascular Disease (PVD) through advocacy, collaboration, and education.
- We advocate for PVD to be well understood and properly resourced
We want national and international public health agencies to acknowledge the major impact Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) has on public health. And we want them to mandate standards for diagnosis and treatment. We will collaborate with organisations worldwide to help us achieve this vision.
- We collaborate globally to share knowledge and inspire cutting-edge research
We will bring together the best PVD professionals (experts, academics, young investigators, and industry leaders) in the world to increase our collective knowledge. We will provide open, inclusive platforms for them to collaborate on cutting-edge basic, clinical, and translational research to achieve results that no single individual or academic institution could accomplish alone.
Through our IDDI Workstreams, we will facilitate the development of diagnostics, treatments and therapies that improve life expectancy and quality of life whilst generating a significant sustainable income stream.
Through our Specialty Task Forces, we will bring together clinicians, researchers, and academia to develop innovative solutions to the key problems facing the PH community.
We will enable every region to have or be part of an active Task Force or similar group to make a demonstrable difference in the burden of PH in that nation or region.
- We educate healthcare professionals to improve diagnosis, treatment, and care
We will address the key challenges in global PH diagnosis, care, and treatment. We will deliver high-quality events, materials, and opportunities to ensure we maintain the interest of the best researchers, clinicians, regulators, and pharma companies in the world.
We will ensure our scientific meetings are accessible and welcoming. They will feature the latest in cutting-edge PH research from globally renowned specialists. They will provide plentiful opportunities for networking and discussion and help early career professionals to develop their careers.
We will take steps to position our journal, Pulmonary Circulation, as the go-to publication for high-quality, cutting-edge PH research. It will remain open access as this underpins our commitment to global education. We provide truly accessible PH education to a global audience through online learning opportunities such as webinars and community calls.
- We will ensure we are operationally sound
We will ensure our charity has a clear vision and strategic direction and that our leadership is equipped to provide excellent governance to deliver on our objectives. We will review our membership strategy to ensure that it is fit for purpose. We will put in place a new website and ensure our communications, evaluation measurements, IT, and human resources are robust so we can achieve our goals.
We are committed to equality, diversion and inclusion
We launched a new three-year strategy in 2023, which puts equality, diversion, and inclusion at the heart of our work. To achieve this, we will
- work to understand the current diversity of the charity, noting areas of underrepresentation and under-participation, and taking a proactive approach to ensure we are a diverse organisation with representation from minority groups
- work to ensure that our global network has a diverse and inclusive leadership
- cultivate an inclusive community where difference is celebrated, everyone feels respected and able to contribute to their full potential
- strive to communicate more inclusively
- gain a better understanding of the global burden of pulmonary hypertension as it affects different people and communities. With an improved understanding of pulmonary hypertension health inequalities, we will be better able to work collaboratively with global partners to reduce and eventually remove them.
In 2006, a group of visionary researchers and medical professionals (Ghazwan Butrous, Stuart Rich, Martin Wilkins, Nick Morrell, Evangelos Michelakis, Marc Semigranand and Fritz Grimminger) came together at Heathrow Airport in London, UK, to share their expertise and discuss ways to combat PVD. At that meeting, the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI) was born.
The following year, Task Forces were established, a Board of Directors and Trustees were appointed, we gained charitable status in the UK and the USA, and our first Annual Congress was held in Malta.
Collaboration was central to our approach from the beginning, and our influence quickly grew as experts from across the world joined us. In 2008, Dr Chen Wang established a PVRI China Centre at Beijing Hospital. In the same year, our Annual Congress was held in Marbella, Spain, and our first webinars allowed researchers and medical professionals to exchange knowledge and expertise globally.
In 2009, we held our third Annual Congress in Mexico, which generated high-level scientific debate and discussion. Social events like the PVRI gathering at the American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego soon followed.
The PVRI Review, our non-peer-reviewed publication, began to shape Pulmonary Vascular Disease (PVD) thought leadership. In 2011, our Paediatric Task Force introduced the functional classification of pulmonary hypertension and PVD stages in children, elevating care standards for young patients. In the same year, we published the first issue of our quarterly peer-reviewed medical journal, Pulmonary Circulation, which was indexed in PubMed after only two issues.
Between 2011 and 2014, Annual Congresses were held in Portugal (2010), Panama (2011), South Africa (2012), Turkey (2013), and Germany (2014). In 2014, our first annual Drug Discovery and Development Symposium was held in Bethesda, USA with 100 attendees, and by 2015, our ninth Annual Congress was held in China.
Between 2016 and 2018, Annual Congresses were held in Italy, Miami and Singapore. In 2018, we increased industry participation in our roundtable, with 11 participating pharmaceutical companies. We awarded over 37 educational grants to our members (worth over £50,000) and published over 100 articles in Pulmonary Circulation.
Since then, our Annual Congresses have been held in Spain, Peru, and Greece, and in 2024, they made it full circle back to London, UK. In 2024, we held our largest Congress in London with over 500 attendees from 33 countries.
Our work continues to touch countless lives and bring us all one step closer to our ultimate goal — a world free from PVD.