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P. Zilla, R. Bolman, Magdi Yacoub, F. Beyersdorf, K. Sliwa, L. Zühlke, Robert Higgins, B. Mayosi, A. Carpentier, David Williams (2018)
The Cape Town declaration on access to cardiac surgery in the developing world.European journal of cardio-thoracic surgery : official journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery, 54 3
Dominique Vervoort, B. Meuris, B. Meyns, P. Verbrugghe (2020)
Global cardiac surgery: Access to cardiac surgical care around the world.The Journal of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery
I. George, M. Salna, S. Kobsa, S. Deroo, Jacob Kriegel, D. Blitzer, Nicholas Shea, A. D'Angelo, Tasnim Raza, P. Kurlansky, K. Takeda, H. Takayama, V. Bapat, Y. Naka, Craig Smith, E. Bacha, M. Argenziano (2020)
The rapid transformation of cardiac surgery practice in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: insights and clinical strategies from a centre at the epicentreEuropean Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery : Official Journal of the European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
Meara (2015)
Global surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic developmentLancet, 386
A. Michaels (2019)
Global Surgery 2030: Evidence and Solutions for Achieving Health, Welfare, and Economic Development50 Landmark Papers
Anne Johnson, Maria Kett, Hugh Montgomery, C. Pagel, Jinesh Patel, N. Redclift, H. Rees, D. Rogger, Judith Stephenson, John Twigg, Jonathan Wolff, C. Patterson (2005)
The Lancet Commissions
Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ejcts/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ejcts/ezaa441/6012802 by DeepDyve user on 18 March 2021 European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery 00 (2020) 1–1 LETTER TO THE EDITOR showed that inequality can be fought by investing in global surgery. There is The coronavirus disease 2019 proves an estimated financial benefit of 12$ trillion for low- and middle-income countries based on an investment of 350$ billion over 15 years [3]. This transformability of the cardiac surgery includes the fight against burdens of society such as rheumatic heart diseases, which can affect over 80% of the world’s population. specialty COVID-19 proved the importance of global health in all parts of medicine a, b and society. Therefore, we should take it as a trigger to deal with global health Martina Steinmaurer *and Maximilian Bley a issues in a world where 93% still lack cardiac surgical care [4]. Hopefully, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany; b ability of transformation prompted by the COVID-19 crisis as shown by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany George et al. will affect new aspects of our global cardiac community. Received 13 October 2020; accepted 8 November 2020 Keywords: Cardiac surgery � Coronavirus disease 2019 � Pandemic � Global REFERENCES health � Global Surgery � Rheumatic heart disease � Education [1] George I, Salna M, Kobsa S, Deroo S, Kriegel J, Blitzer D et al. The rapid transformation of cardiac surgery practice in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: insights and clinical strategies from a centre at the epicentre. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 58:667–75. Forced by the implications of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, [2] Zilla P, Bolman RM, Yacoub MH, Beyersdorf F, Sliwa K, Zu ¨hlke L et al. the staff at the New York Presbyterian Hospital managed to rearrange their The Cape Town declaration on access to cardiac surgery in the develop- system of healthcare delivery to improve conditions to deal with the crisis [1]. ing world. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2018;54:407–10. They showed what potential for evolvement lies underneath the surface in a [3] Meara JG, Leather AJ, Hagander L, Alkire BC, Alonso N, Ameh EA et al. time of need. Even though this transformation came with an economic bur- Global surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, wel- den due to the loss of elective cases, this is an impressive development that fare, and economic development. Lancet 2015;386:569–624. shall serve as an example of transformation capacity within our specialty. This [4] Vervoort D, Meuris B, Meyns B, Verbrugghe P. Global cardiac surgery: example shows that transformation of cardiac surgery is possible and makes access to cardiac surgical care around the world. J Thorac Cardiovasc one wonder where else our specialty could profit from this newly-found abil- Surg 2020;159:987–96. ity of transformation. One area that could profit from a change in perception as shown in the COVID-19 crisis is global cardiac surgery. In 2018, the ‘Cape Town Declaration *Corresponding author. Großambergstraße 110, 4040 Linz, Austria. Tel: +43- on Access to Cardiac Surgery in the Developing World’ [2] encouraged com- 6506355241; e-mail: martina.steinmaurer@gmail.com (M. Steinmaurer). mitment to increase the access to cardiac surgery. Cardiac surgery aims to fa- cilitate a better and healthier world. Social components are a threat to this doi:10.1093/ejcts/ezaa441 aim generated by inequality. The 2015 Lancet commission on Global Surgery The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved. LETTER TO THE EDITOR
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery – Oxford University Press
Published: Nov 30, 2020
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