Partnership models for the establishment of sustainable paediatric cardiac surgical and cardiac intensive care programmes in low- and middle-income countries

• Published in: Cardiology in the young Vol. 27; no. S6; p. S55
• Main Authors: Bastero, Patricia, Staveski, Sandra L, Zheleva, Bistra, Scanlan, Emma, Cabrera, Antonio G, Araujo, Aric, Reyes, Guillermo, Mery, Carlos M, Palacios-Macedo, Alexis, Brizard, Christian P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-12-2017
• Subjects: Critical Care - methods; Developing Countries; Heart Defects, Congenital - surgery; Humans; Pediatrics; Program Evaluation - standards; Low- and middle-income countries; paediatric cardiac intensive care; sustainability
• ISSN: 1467-1107
• DOI: 10.1017/S1047951117002621

The care of patients with CHD remains a challenge in low- and middle-income countries. Their health systems have not been able to achieve consistently high performance in this field. The large volume of patients, manpower constraints, inconsistencies in the level and type of background training of the teams caring for this patient population, and the inadequate quality control systems are some of the barriers to achieving excellence of care. We describe three different international projects supporting the paediatric cardiac surgical and paediatric cardiac intensive care programmes in Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean.