Article Summary by Dominique Vervoort, Lina A Elfaki, Maria Servito, Karla Yael Herrera-Morales and Kudzai Kanyepi
Around the world, more than six billion people are unable to undergo heart surgery. This is a result of an absence of surgeons and other health workers, insufficient money or health insurance, limited supplies, or a combination of factors. Among those unable to undergo heart surgery when needed, further differences exist: people may have to wait longer or experience worse outcomes based on certain personal characteristics, including but not limited to one’s sex, gender, race, ethnicity, other identities, income, location, and more. Understanding the importance of these characteristics and their combined effects on access to heart surgery is critical to tackle gaps in heart surgery worldwide. In this article, the authors attempt to redefine the concept of “global cardiac surgery” in a manner wherein such intersectionality–the intersection of individuals’ identities and characteristics–is prioritized.
Read the full article on the Medical Humanities journal website.
Dominique Vervoort, MD, MPH, CPH, MBA
PhD Candidate in Health Systems Research – Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of Toronto
MSt Candidate in Practical Ethics – University of Oxford
Dr. Dominique Vervoort is a PhD Candidate in Health Systems Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, focusing on Health Technology Assessment in cardiac surgery, and concurrently pursuing an MSt in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. For his PhD, he has been awarded the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the Dr. Jack V. Tu Memorial Award for Excellence. He previously completed his MD at the KU Leuven and his MPH/MBA dual degree at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School as a Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, and was inducted into the Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health in recognition of his global and public health work throughout the pandemic. Dominique completed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship at the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, working with Ministries of Health on National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anaesthesia Plans (NSOAPs) in Pakistan and West Africa, and studying access to cardiac surgical care around the world.
Dominique has introduced the concept of global cardiac surgery to literature and established the Global Cardiac Surgery Initiative to advocate for the nearly six billion people worldwide without access to cardiac surgical care. In recognition of this, Dominique was named an Emerging Leader by the World Heart Federation. Clinically, as an aspiring cardiac surgeon, his interests lie in aortic and congenital heart surgery outcomes and disparities in accessing cardiac care.
Dominique is Co-Founder and Past Chair of InciSioN – International Student Surgical Network, the world’s largest global surgery trainee organization worldwide with over 8,000 members in over 100 countries. He has given lectures and facilitated workshops on youth engagement in global surgery at conferences around the world and represented the trainee voice in global surgery at high-level forums, such as the World Health Assembly, United Nations General Assembly, and Universal Health Coverage Forum. He serves as an Advisor for the Global Surgery Foundation, Advisor for the Johns Hopkins Global Surgery Initiative, Medical Advisory Board Member for the Global Alliance for Rheumatic and Congenital Hearts, and co-Founder of the Gender Equity Initiative in Global Surgery. Dominique has written widely on global and public health disparities, and has been featured in the New York Times, the BMJ, JAMA, Al Jazeera, Devex, and MedPage Today. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications in leading cardiovascular, surgical, and global health journals, and serves on the Editorial Board of multiple high-impact cardiovascular and health services research journals.
Twitter/X: @DVervoort94
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vervoort/
Website: https://www.dominiquevervoort.com
