aswan heart centre

In 2009 Magdi Yacoub Foundation secured a long term lease to three floors of an existing Aswan public hospital. The building was renovated by the foundation and Aswan Heart Centre started work in the second quarter of 2009. At inception in 2009 the facility had two surgical suites, one cath suite, and 12 ICU beds. Twelve young Egyptian doctors and nurses were recruited for the initial phase. Over the course of 2009-2010 the working model depended on visiting international doctors, nurses and technicians. Work was intermittent and when the international teams returned to their native countries, work stopped at AHC. In 2009, 90 surgical and interventional cases were performed and in 2010, we doubled the number to 180 cases. Although the start-up numbers were small but they were enough to give the needed insight and confidence to MYF to refine and scale the working model. MYF embarked on a robust program for recruitment and training of young Egyptian healthcare providers. Our doctors, nurses and scientists were able to grasp the complexity of modern medical practice in a short span of time. Over the past few years the work model was refined and Aswan Heart Centre grew from an idea in the making to what is now a state of the art modern hospital with more than 600 Egyptian dedicated personnel with 100 doctors and 270 nurses contributing to one of the most respected medical centers in Egypt and the world.

The scaling of workforce was paralleled by modernizing of the infrastructure and facilities and today AHC has 41 ICU beds, 50 ward beds, two modern surgical suites, two modern catheter suites, 9 outpatient exam rooms and a state-of-the-art imaging center. In 2016 a fully operational research building was inaugurated. In 2017 we

reviewed more than 22,000 cases in the outpatient department, and performed more than 1000 complex heart surgeries and 2600 cardiac catheterization procedures mostly interventional. Our practice now goes beyond the classic segmentation of pediatric and adult heart disease and is becoming populated by many subspecialty clinics, interventional programs and basic science research. Our patient centered approach pivots on providing quality care to the underserved communities in Egypt and now extends to Africa through our multidisciplinary team work. More specialties are joining the team, our neonatal, GUSH, HOCM, Primary PCI, LVAD and TAVI programs are just examples and involve cardiologist, surgeons, nurses, engineers, scientists and administrators working together in tandem to provide very delicate care and hope to a special cohort of vulnerable patients.

From our inception our programs opened a multitude of collaborative international channels exposing our teams to state-of the-art universal medical practice. As the Centre matured our staff is now able to transfer acquired knowledge and expertise to young Egyptian and African doctors and nurses from other institutions through AHC observership and fellowship programs. AHC continues to be a vibrant institution that embraces modern medicine and the Yacoub doctrine; hard-work, perseverance and going the extra-mile to achieve our mission statement and serve our patients with highest degree of medical expertise and respect and to contribute to global knowledge through our translational life sciences’ research programs.