EACTS in the future: second strategic conference. The view from the BRICS countries.

Abstract

BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and has emerged as the symbol of the shift in global economic power, developing at a faster pace than industrialized countries. BRICS accounted for 53% of the entire global GDP growth during the period 2007-2010 and, in the next 40 years, as much as 80% of the world's economic growth will come from emerging market countries. Despite the fact that infrastructure in BRICS has improved markedly in recent years, these countries have not created a modern, broad healthcare system as encountered in the G7 industrialized countries and extensive regional differences in health expenditure exist between them. Nevertheless, the BRICS countries are quickly taking the lead in encouraging innovation, simplifying devices and processes and applying newer technologies that are more adapted to consumers' needs and less costly. Cardiovascular surgery in the BRICS countries remains far lower when compared with the G7 countries and the cardiovascular surgical training also varies widely. However, this huge shift in the global economy and the regional discrepancies might represent a unique opportunity for co-operation, interaction and partnership to integrate cardiovascular societies and surgeons all over the globe for the best care of our patients: surely it will contribute to making our world more egalitarian, fairer and better.