The event will be hosted by Pan-African Society for Cardiotho­racic Surgery (PASCaTS), Global Health Care (GHC) in collabo­ration with the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, German Heart Centre Charity Berlin and West African College of Surgeons.

Speaking at a press briefing over the weekend, the President of PASCaTS, Professor Charles Yankah, said the aim of the sum­mit was to empower the youth, es­pecially women to pursue a career in cardiothoracic surgery as it was very important in the health sector.

Also, he stated that, it was to strengthen knowledge and skills of the young generation cardiothorac­ic surgeons and allied professionals for the future cardiovascular dis­eases which could be epidemic in Africa, due to financial constraints.

Furthermore, Prof. Yankah added that the summit was to also promote cardiovascular education and fellowship programmes to upgrade skills of the trainers to help them train more effectively and efficiently in the field.

“Our goal is to change the mindset for innovating low-budget cardiovascular surgery to improve case volumes, access to quality surgery, quality capacity building programmes that will lead to developing centre of excellence to help meet our universal health coverage target,” he noted.

He stated that a team from the International Charity Heart would be sharing a wealth of medical experiences which has never been utilised to its potential in Africa.

The summit, he said, hosts government officials, academia, public health senior executives and providers, industries and IT professionals.

“We welcome you to join us in Accra with a shared mission to fight against cardiovascular and thoracic diseases, and to raise global south standards in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of patients and their outcome,” he explained.

Moreover, Prof. Yankah again stated that participants would learn from cardiovascular leaders who were reshaping the future of global cardiac surgery and witness the power of the evidence-based and standard-based cardiovascular surgery.

Guest speakers and speakers at the event, he outlined, would in­clude, Prof. Magdi Yacoub, Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation; Aswan Heart Centre, Egypt; Prof. Joanna Chikwe, Cardiac Surgery Smidt Heart Institute; Cedars-Sinai Med­ical Centre, Los Angeles, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusu, Director General, World Health Organisation, Geneva.

Others included Daniel Krull, Ambassador of the Federal Re­public of Germany; Prof. Richard Adanu, Rector, Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons; while speakers of honorary lecturers also included, Charles Easmon, John Barlow, Adib Jatene, Donald Ross and Christian Barnard.