From Declaration to Delivery: Cardiac Surgery Unites for Global Impact

This article highlights the establishment of the Cardiac Surgery Intersociety Alliance (CSIA), a global coalition of all major cardiac surgical societies working with the World Heart Federation. Its mission is to increase access to cardiac surgery and address rheumatic heart disease in the developing world by building local surgical capacity as a response to the persistent gaps created by traditional assistance models. The need for a more academic and sustainable approach to address the disparity in access to care was recognized as a moral imperative by all major cardiac surgical societies in a joint declaration formalized in 2017 through the Cape Town Declaration 1 on the 50th anniversary of Christiaan Barnard’s first heart transplant. It also details CSIA’s first request for proposals from low-income countries seeking to engage CSIA to support the expansion of access to cardiac surgery in 2018. In 2026, CSIA announced its second request for proposals, seeking sites where cardiac surgery initiatives exist but local resource limits prevent scaling. Selected sites will be announced at the inaugural EACTS/STS/CSIA Cardio-Thoracic Conference “In Africa for Africa,” September 4–6, 2026, in Cape Town, South Africa, continuing the effort to facilitate global partnerships for capacity building in low-resource settings.