6 Billion People Have No Access to Safe, Timely, and Affordable Cardiac Surgical Care

Most surgeons practice in high income countries, even though the majority of the world’s population lives in low- or middle-income countries. There is a significant disparity between high-income and low-income countries in the number of both cardiac and pediatric cardiac surgeons. The number of nonsurgical cardiovascular surgeons—including interventional cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists, perfusionists, technicians, and other health workers—in low-income countries remains unclear, along with where they are distributed. A clear path exists to foster and uphold heart teams with a high socioeconomic return on investment across countries, but failing to take action means that millions of people will continue to suffer from preventable and treatable cardiac conditions each year.