A Pan-European training in cardio vascular or cardio thoracic surgery: Update and current challenges

Cardiothoracic surgery is involved in the treatment of diseases and injuries of the heart, blood vessel and lungs.It is a young specialty which has grown rapidly since the Second World War.Johns Hopkins Hospital developed a training model that was also used for cardiothoracic surgeon education.In 1928 John Alexander instituted the first CT surgery training program at the University of Michigan: he introduced two-year period of training in cardiothoracic surgery, after ending training in general surgery.Dr. Alexander was associate professor and after full professor at the University of Michigan.He dedicated his whole teaching career to one institute and radically influenced the reputation of surgery departments.During the years he learned and transmitted to his students the best and most modern knowledge.The American Association for Thoracic Surgery was founded in 1917 to promote scholarship and education in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery.Now the association has over 1200 members from 35 countries with main center in Massachusetts.The association organizes conferences, seminars, workshops and educational programs across the world in order to realize their aims.The society also publishes the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.Cardio-thoracic surgery has experienced a great development during years: from the late 1970s through the 1990s, the number of training programs and cardiothoracic surgeons improved.Technological developments brought to the supremacy of CT surgery over the treatment of thoracic illness and ischemic and valvular heart disease. 1 During the years, many positive changes have occurred since the first training in cardiothoracic surgery.Medical education in thoracic surgery grew in the United States, reaching a total of 93 training programs with 350 residents annually.2 In Europe, cardiothoracic surgery's training is possible in 28 states and there are 27 official training programs.Currently, there are different training pathways in cardiothoracic surgery: for some universities thoracic surgery is a subspecialty of general surgery, in other programs thoracic surgeons are trained independently from cardiac surgeons and in some institutes cardiac and thoracic or vascular surgery training are integrated into a common certification.3 The real problem is that residency's programs are not well organized and some of the main lacks are:• Unequal programs entry requirements