TY - JOUR
T1 - The 2025 Accra Declaration on Upskilling and Cost- Effective Cardiac Surgery in Africa
AU - Yankah, A. Charles
AU - Nwiloh, Jonathan
AU - Mestres, Carlos A.
AU - Bouzid, Abdelmalek
AU - Mwambu, Tom Philip
AU - Duncan, Andrew J.
AU - Debieche, Mohamed
AU - Omokhodion, Samuel I.
AU - Onakpoya, Uvie U.
AU - Angres, Matthias
AU - Nademo, Siyasebow M.
AU - Oburu, Gilbert
AU - Yao, Nana Akyaa
AU - Entsua-Mensah, Kow
AU - Reddy, Darshan
AU - Antunes, Manuel
AU - Gomes, Walter J.
AU - Akamah, Joseph A.
AU - Yigitbasi, Mustafa
AU - Buys, Daniel Gerhard
AU - Bokenkamp, Regina
AU - Koen, Willie
AU - Smit, Francis E.
AU - Chikwe, Joanna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc on behalf of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, by SAGE Publications, by Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers on behalf of Pan African Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.
PY - 2026/2/1
Y1 - 2026/2/1
N2 - The Pan-African Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (PASCaTS) organized the 1st Pan-African Cardiothoracic Surgery Summit on 21 to 24 February 2025 in Accra, Ghana. The summit brought together leading specialists from across Africa, China, Europe, South America and the USA to address the growing burden of cardiovascular disease, to share their vision for the fight against cardiovascular disease, to raise standards in the diagnosis, treatment and recovery of patients thereby improving procedural safety and clinical outcomes in Africa. The experts agreed on the need for cost effectiveness in cardiac surgery, simulation skills training, an African regional cardiothoracic surgery database, African heart team fellowship programs and specialized working groups to guide cardiovascular diagnostics and treatments focusing on critical areas such as congenital heart surgery, valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) procedures which are becoming increasingly necessary in Africa due to the rise in cardiovascular emergencies, and finally explore solutions tailored to the continent’s unique healthcare challenges. The incentives generated from the summit are formulated as the “2025 Accra Declaration” to serve as roadmaps and implementable guidelines for promoting high-level cardiovascular surgery and reforms in Africa in collaboration with cardiologists and other allied cardiovascular professionals.
AB - The Pan-African Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (PASCaTS) organized the 1st Pan-African Cardiothoracic Surgery Summit on 21 to 24 February 2025 in Accra, Ghana. The summit brought together leading specialists from across Africa, China, Europe, South America and the USA to address the growing burden of cardiovascular disease, to share their vision for the fight against cardiovascular disease, to raise standards in the diagnosis, treatment and recovery of patients thereby improving procedural safety and clinical outcomes in Africa. The experts agreed on the need for cost effectiveness in cardiac surgery, simulation skills training, an African regional cardiothoracic surgery database, African heart team fellowship programs and specialized working groups to guide cardiovascular diagnostics and treatments focusing on critical areas such as congenital heart surgery, valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) procedures which are becoming increasingly necessary in Africa due to the rise in cardiovascular emergencies, and finally explore solutions tailored to the continent’s unique healthcare challenges. The incentives generated from the summit are formulated as the “2025 Accra Declaration” to serve as roadmaps and implementable guidelines for promoting high-level cardiovascular surgery and reforms in Africa in collaboration with cardiologists and other allied cardiovascular professionals.
KW - Accra declaration
KW - Africa
KW - access to cardiac surgery
KW - cost effective cardiac surgery
KW - global heart forum
KW - pan-African society for cardiothoracic surgery
KW - structural heart disease
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105030906031
U2 - 10.1093/ejcts/ezag036
DO - 10.1093/ejcts/ezag036
M3 - Article
C2 - 41725176
AN - SCOPUS:105030906031
SN - 1010-7940
VL - 68
JO - European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery
JF - European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery
IS - 2
M1 - ezag036
ER -