In the operating room, many of the things we consider deeply important in everyday life simply disappear. Nationality, language, colour, religion, and social status all fade into the background. What remains before the physician is a human being in need of another chance at life.

When the heart is diseased, the surgeon does not ask where its owner comes from or which country he belongs to. And when life depends on a medical decision or a delicate surgical intervention, the only identity that matters to the physician is our shared humanity.

That is why, throughout my career, I have always believed that the heart carries no passport.

I have worked in different countries, treated patients from diverse cultures and backgrounds, and performed cardiac surgery on thousands of patients in need across different parts of the world. With every new experience, I have become more convinced that medicine is one of the fields most capable of transcending the borders people create between themselves.

We may not speak the same language, but the fear before surgery is the same.

Our cultures may differ, but the look in a mother’s eyes as she waits for her child to emerge from the operating room is the same in every country.

We may carry different passports, but the human heartbeat is one.

This truth is what gives medicine its deepest ethical dimension. Medical knowledge is not a privilege that should remain confined within wealthy countries or major institutions. It is a responsibility that should reach every human being who needs it.

This is why humanitarian medical initiatives are so important. Their role should not be limited to providing treatment. They should also transfer knowledge and expertise, train physicians, and strengthen the capabilities of local healthcare institutions, so that the impact of a medical mission does not end when the operation is over or when the medical team leaves.

I have had the honour of performing thousands of cardiac surgeries for patients in need in different parts of the world through initiatives associated with the name of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may his soul rest in peace.

For us, the name of Sheikh Zayed was never merely the name attached to a humanitarian initiative. It represented a complete philosophy in the way we view the human being.

Sheikh Zayed believed that helping people should never be determined by nationality or geography, and that true compassion is that which reaches a person simply because he or she is human.

This philosophy lies very close to the essence of medicine.

A true physician cannot witness suffering and first ask about the identity of the person in pain. Nor can a physician stand before a patient in need of treatment and place political borders ahead of humanitarian duty.

Yet humanitarian medicine today also requires a more advanced approach.

It is no longer enough to send medical teams to perform a number of procedures and then leave. The more sustainable model is to leave behind knowledge, capability, and a stronger healthcare system.

When we travel to perform a complex operation, there should be a young physician learning alongside us.

When we introduce a new medical technique, there should be an institution capable of continuing to use it after we depart.

And when we save the life of one patient, we should also think about how to build a healthcare system capable of saving thousands more in the future.

That is why I believe the future of humanitarian medicine rests on three interconnected pillars: treatment, education, and capacity-building.

Treatment saves a patient today.

Education develops a physician who will save patients tomorrow.

And strong institutions can protect entire communities for many years to come.

At this point, international cooperation in medicine becomes a necessity rather than a luxury.

The world today possesses an extraordinary wealth of medical knowledge, yet access to that knowledge remains deeply unequal. Advanced technologies are saving lives in one part of the world while remaining unavailable to patients elsewhere.

The real challenge facing the global medical community is not only to develop new treatments, but also to make these innovations more fairly accessible.

Artificial intelligence, telemedicine, and data analytics can also help narrow this gap. Today, a physician in a remote hospital can consult a specialist thousands of kilometres away, while medical knowledge can be transmitted in moments to regions that, only a few years ago, were largely isolated from it.

These technologies offer us a historic opportunity to make medicine more global and more humane at the same time.

But technology alone is not enough.

We also need a medical culture that believes knowledge should be shared, and that a successful physician is not simply one who performs the greatest number of operations, but one who helps develop other physicians capable of carrying the mission forward.

After decades in cardiac surgery, I have learned that some moments never leave a doctor’s memory.

I do not remember every number or every detail of every operation, but I remember the faces of patients after they were given their lives back.

I remember the smile of a child after a difficult heart operation.

I remember a mother who waited for hours outside the operating room.

And I remember patients who could not afford treatment, yet medicine gave them an opportunity they would not otherwise have had.

In those moments, a physician understands that the true value of this profession lies not only in surgical skill, but in the ability to transform science into hope.

Hope does not require an entry visa.

Compassion knows no borders.

And the heart, in the end, carries no passport.

That is why my mission will always be to make medicine a bridge between peoples, to make medical knowledge a shared language, and to work towards a world in which every human being, regardless of where they are born or what resources they possess, has a fair chance at life.

Because the greatest thing medicine can do is not merely to heal the heart, but to remind us that humanity itself has one heart.

Internationally renowned cardiac surgeon Honorary President, University of Salerno – Italy Vice President, University of Lugano – Switzerland Professor of Cardiac Surgery, Catholic University of Rome – Italy Professor of Cardiac Surgery, London – United Kingdom