Cardiology, surgery, medicine, cardiovascular surgeon, cardiothoracic surgery,

There has been little progress in reducing health care disparities since the 2003 landmark Institute of Medicine's report Unequal Treatment. Despite the higher burden of cardiovascular disease in underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, they have less access to cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, and have higher rates of morbidity and mortality with cardiac surgical interventions. This review summarizes existing literature and highlights disparities in cardiovascular perioperative health care. We propose actionable solutions utilizing multidisciplinary perspectives from cardiology, cardiac surgery, cardiothoracic anesthesiology, critical care, medical ethics, and health disparity experts...

Luis Tavares revolutionized cardiac surgery, always bringing the most modern instruments and equipment from his travels to England - surgical forceps, scissors, scalpels, etc. He always insisted that he was not just a thoracic surgeon, for his work extended over a wide field and created three important cardiac surgery centers which promoted a great development of cardiology. He carried out the first open heart surgery (atrial septal defect) employing extracorporeal circulation and closure of a ventricular septal defect with deep surface hypothermia of north and northeast Brazil...

Many women physicians have blazed trails and played instrumental roles in advancing the field of Advanced Heart Failure (AHF), Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS), and cardiac transplantation to its current recognition and glory. In contrast to other areas of cardiology, women have played an integral role in the evolution and emergence of this sub-specialty. Although the ceiling had been broken much later for women cardiothoracic (CT) surgeons in the field of AHF, the ingress of women into surgical fields particularly CT surgery was stonewalled due to pervasive stereotyping...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review attempts to specifically assess impact of disease location in left main artery on mortality and cardiovascular outcomes in patients treated with percutaneous coronary intervention versus coronary artery bypass surgery. RECENT FINDINGS: The management of left main disease, once thought to be the sole province of cardiothoracic surgeon, has recently undergone a reappraisal by the cardiovascular medicine community. For many years, societal guideline recommendations advised bypass surgery as the "de rigeur" method of revascularization for unprotected left main disease...

OBJECTIVES: Cardiothoracic surgeons and practitioners of cardiovascular medicine have a long history of humanitarian aid. Although this is worthwhile at multiple levels and occasionally described in some detail, few efforts have a proven algorithm with demonstrable outcomes that suggest effective educational methodology or clinical results approaching accepted standards in developed countries. METHODS: Our report provides a stepwise approach to developing highly successful self-sustainable, replicable, and scalable humanitarian congenital cardiac surgical programs, and provides data to allow insight into the efficacy of our model...

In ancient times, female medical practitioners and female surgeons were well known. With the introduction of medicine as an academic course and the ban on women studying, the medical career became virtually impossible for women. This condition changed with the general admission for women to colleges, in Germany in 1908. The current situation of women in surgery is presented here, with cardiovascular surgery as an example. Of 302 active cardiothoracic and cardiac surgeons 4.6% are female. According to an inquiry of all German heart institutes, there are 20 female senior registrars and 27 female surgeons as well as 162 female assistants...