On the 5th of May 1962, the “All India Heart Foundation” was established, mainly due to the efforts of the first woman cardiologist of India, Padma Vibhushan Awardee, Dr. S. Padmavati. She was greatly influenced by her guru Dr. Paul Dudley White, who sought to transform the way medical science catered to the needs of a common person.
AIHF has been affiliated with the World Heart Federation (WHF), and its predecessor International Society and Federation of Cardiology (ISFC) since 1963 and has been a Member of its Board of Directors, its Research Epidemiology Committee, and its Adhoc committee on Rheumatic Fever/Rheumatic Heart Disease (RF/RHD). AIHF is a member of the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN) and Dr. S. Padmavati was its President from 2006 to 2008. Dr. Padmavati was the First Secretary. General of the Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology (APSC) (founded in 1956). AIHF held the 5th World Congress of Cardiology in Delhi in 1966, the only time it has been held in India, and International RF Symposium under the auspices of World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1981.
AIHF has close links with the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, British Heart Foundation, Japan Heart Foundation, Heart Foundation of Australia, and National Heart Foundation of New Zealand among others.