About US
Empowering the next generation of African cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons.
Our vision and mission
Everyone deserves access to surgical care.
We are the leading organization with the goal to accelerate access to cardiothoracic and vascular surgical care in Africa.
Our vision
To be the largest community of aspiring African cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons and to equip all its members with the skills and resources necessary to become highly successful African cardiothoracic/ vascular surgeons
Our mission
To promote networking, mentorship, social, educational and capacity building among aspiring African cardiothoracic surgeons. We aim to level the playing field for all aspiring African cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons by sharing information and opportunities.
Become part of our mission
Investing into AFAC is the best way to achieve direct and lasting impact at scale.
Your individual donation is extremely important to maintain our operations – thank you.
Who are we?
The Association of Future African Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgeons is a Pan-African organization established to recruit, engage and prepare passionate medical students and young physicians interested in cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery and cardiovascular medicine.
The aim of the organization is to increase early exposure to the field, provide educational tools, offer networking opportunities, career opportunities and create a community of peer mentorship and collaboration among its members.
Background
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world, responsible for 17.5 million deaths each year, 80% of which occur in low and middle-income countries [1]. About 75% of the world does not have access to cardiac surgery when needed due to lack of infrastructure, human resources and financial coverage [2].
A total of 12,180 adult cardiac surgeons and 3858 Paediatric cardiac surgeons were listed in the cardiothoracic surgery network as of August 2017, which equates to 1.64 (0-181.82) adult cardiac surgeons and 0.52 (0-25.97) Paediatric cardiac surgeons per million population worldwide [3]. Low-income countries have 0.04 adult and 0.03 Paediatric cardiac surgeons per million population, compared to 7.15 adult and 1.67 Paediatric cardiac surgeons in high-income countries4.
There is a large and growing burden of surgically correctable cardiovascular disease in Africa. The majority of cardiac surgeries in Africa are performed by local teams (71.4%), compared to visiting teams (4.9%) and mixed teams (23.7%) [5].
In view of the difficulties in accessing specializations faced by these dynamic and passionate young people whose training would ensure the future succession, it therefore seemed important to us to set up the Association of Future African Cardiothoracic Surgeons (AFAC), an international non-governmental and non-profit organization, composed of aspiring cardiothoracic surgeons from all over the world, particularly in Africa, whose mission is mentoring, education, advocacy and research in cardiothoracic surgery and related fields.
- Joseph A. Dearani et al., « Humanitarian Outreach in Cardiothoracic Surgery: From Setup to Sustainability »,
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery 102, no 3 (septembre 2016): 1004‑11, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2016.03.062. - Dominique Vervoort et al., « Global Cardiac Surgery: Access to Cardiac Surgical Care around the World », The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 159, no 3 (mars 2020): 987-996.e6,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2019.04.039. - Vervoort et al.
- Vervoort et al.
- « Lin et al. – 2020 – Cardiac surgery publications in Africa over the la.pdf », consulté le 1 juillet 2022,
http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajs/v116n1-2/16.pdf.
Our History
AFAC was founded in July 2022 by a group of 4 aspiring cardiothoracic surgeons.
The idea to create AFAC came from a similar initiative, namely the Future Cardiothoracic Surgeons Network founded by Frank Abaiweh a platform that brings together medical students from around the world who are passionate about cardiothoracic surgery.
Countries in Africa where we have members
