Cardiac Surgery and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Review

In September 2015, the United Nations introduced Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address persistent gaps in global health by 2030. Of the seventeen SDGs, the authors posit how fifteen goals can be directly or indirectly influenced by the cardiothoracic community. Amid the growing movement of National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plans developed by dozens of countries worldwide and catalyzed by local Ministries of Health and the World Health Organization, cardiac surgery receives little mention because of a lack of individual and societal voices at the table. The cardiothoracic community, however, is ideally positioned to play a pivotal role in securing future access to quality global cardiovascular care.