Aswan Heart Centre Egypt

The Aswan Heart Center (AHC) in Southern Egypt combats congenital and acquired heart disease at the highest level of quality. All patients are treated free of charge. Based on this philosophy, it represents a unique flagship project in humanitarian engagement that improves the life chances of thousands of disadvantaged people in Egypt and across Africa.

The AHC is an exceptional hospital and was founded in 2009 by Prof. Sir Magdi Yacoub, one of the world’s most respected cardiac surgeons, scientists and medical lecturers. It embraces modern medicine and the Yacoub doctrine: hard work, perseverance and going the extra mile to serve the patients with the very best degree of medical expertise and respect.

Following the same vision, ideals and objectives, ROBINAID was invited to work with this great institution and for many years we have been closely associated with our friends in Aswan. We are involved in the daily work in the paediatric intensive care unit, conduct joint training programs and pass on knowledge, skills and expertise to young colleagues from other cardiac centres and countries through scholarship programs with proven curricula.

About 1,200 complex heart surgeries (more than 60% in infants and children) and 2,800 interventional procedures are performed annually; 20% of the surgical activities are devoted to rheumatic heart disease. 600 dedicated staff members including 100 doctors and 270 nurses are contributing to the high reputation of the AHC; it has 41 intensive care beds, 50 ward beds, two operating theatres, two catheter suites, 9 outpatient exam rooms (consultation of about 25,000 patients / year), and a state-of-the-art imaging center including CT- and MRI-scanner. In 2016, a fully operational research building was inaugurated.

Implementation of Essential Emergency Critical Care in Cameroon

Critical illnesses claim too many lives every day in Cameroon. Due to the severe shortage of infrastructure, trained medical professionals and financial resources, emergency and critical care services are still in their infancy.

In the light of an urgent the need to fundamentally improve this untenable situation, ROBINAID and the Cameroon Association of Critical Care Nurses developed the Concept of Emergency Critical Care, which provides reliable, practical and affordable care for patients of all ages in critical conditions.

The Emergency Critical Care (ECC) strategy is to focus on early detection of whether a patient is in a life-threatening condition or at risk of getting into such a serious state; the concept aims to stabilize vital functions in a timely manner, determine the cause of the problem and carry out targeted interventions to improve respiratory, circulatory, renal, metabolic, and neurological organ functions. Using point-of-care ultrasound and laboratory testing, the correct diagnosis is initially sought, and the effect of the treatment begun is re-assessed. ECC procedures include the application of specific pharmacotherapy, mechanical ventilation, and peritoneal dialysis.

Training in ECC is a two-year in-service course, supplemented by mentoring and continuous performance reviews. We convey the theoretical teaching content through a combination of e-learning and face-to-face lectures. Practical workshops take place every three months at the Essential Health Higher Institute in Foumbot.

In hospitals of our clinical partner, the Baptist Convention Health Services, we support the development of state-of-the-art, standardized emergency intensive care units, each with six to eight treatment places. We promote the procurement of cardiovascular monitoring systems, ventilators, point-of-care ultrasound and laboratory diagnostic devices. In addition, we ensure access to the supply of medicines and consumables.

The Essential Health For All Foundation (EHFAF) is a non-profit organization committed to establishing medical education and services in the rural areas. EHFAF operates the Essential Health Higher Institute in Foumbot, associated to the University of Bamenda. This institution is our main partner, with whom we have brought the training in ECC to an academically recognized level.

International Medical Class Global Critical Care

The Bremen International Medical Class (IMC) is a joint project between ROBINAID ACADEMY and the Bremen Symposium on Intensive Care Medicine + Nursing which belongs with annually more than 4,500 attendees to the largest medical congresses in Germany dealing with the topics of anesthesia, emergency, and critical care.

Invited fellows from our partnered hospitals and projects in different countries are coming to Bremen each February, working together with German colleagues on cur-rent topics in the field of critical care, gaining new ideas, sharing experiences, learning from one another and developing friendly relationships.

In 2020, the combination of the 30th Bremen Symposium on Intensive Care Medicine + Nursing and the 5th International Medical Class was a very special anniversary edition. Unfortunately, in 2021 and 2022 the symposium had to be cancelled due to the covid pandemic but in February 2023, we reestablished our IMC after a 2-year mandatory break in a new and extended format as a common event of ROBINAID ACADEMY + Aswan Heart Centre + Cameroon Association of Critical Care Nurses.

ROBINAID ACADEMY

Considering the importance of medical education as an essential key to independency, in 2018 we established our ROBINAID ACADEMY offering structured and certified training programs as well as scientific events in cardiac and emergency critical care.

We are following a three-level concept of basic, advanced, and specialized training added by a Continuous Medical Education Program (CME) to maintain and renewal the acquired abilities regularly.

Furthermore, we provide access to Advanced Studies in order to enable talented graduated physicians and nurses to reinforce their academic and research competences to be prepared to work as an academic teacher or clinical scientist.

All our training elements meet the WFSICCM (World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine) training recommendations for critical care specialists to ensure high international quality standards.

Cameroon Heart Project

Across Cameroon and the neighboring countries of Central Africa, there is no facility that offers the full range of diagnostic and treatment procedures for congenital and acquired heart defects. For several years, ROBINAID participated in medical visiting teams at the TSSF General Hospital Shisong near Kumbo in the Northwest Region of the country. Little by little, a small but well-trained team grew up on site.

Unfortunately, the socio-political situation became more and more difficult due to long-running tensions between the anglophone and francophone population; as a wave of violence was shaken the region the missions to Shisong lastly had to be stopped at the end of 2018 for security reasons.

Out of responsibility towards the patients and the local team, it was decided to move the project to the capital, Yaoundé, to continue in a safer and more accessible location; at the Jordan Medical Complex, an operating room was technically upgraded, and a temporary 5-bed intensive care unit was set up. After less than 6 months, we were able to restart the project in May 2019 with the first surgeries in this new interim solution.

After a series of regular missions, we re-assessed the situation with the local team and international partners. However, it became apparent that working under such structural and technical deficits and without expansion options could not meet the high demands in the care of heart patients; we had to recognize that the framework conditions were not sufficient to implement a future-oriented and sustainable development of such an important project.

Together we concluded that the best solution would be to expand the vision and concept of the MY Aswan Heart Center to Cameroon and create a completely new center within the next few years. Although we know this will be very ambitious, we have decided to take on this challenge.

To run this new strategy from the start with a local institutional partner, the charitable Heart of Cameroon Foundation (HOF) was founded in 2022, based in Yaoundé. In order to close the gap until the new facility is realized, we continue to support the HOF team by missions at the Yaoundé General Hospital, where the equipping is better.