Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation leads effort to train heart surgeons in Ethiopia

[Star Tribune, June 04, 2016] Doctors from developed countries routinely travel to impoverished nations on “medical missions,” working through nongovernmental organizations to provide free health care not available in local clinics.

Some missions provide surgical services.

But performing heart-valve surgeries one at a time is an expensive solution that can’t address the underlying problems that make rheumatic heart disease the most prevalent heart condition in children and young adults in Ethiopia, a nation of 94 million people. Now, the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation is working with local surgeons to train them how to do the surgeries themselves. Read the full story at the startribune.com.