Vascular education and training in Asia.

Cardiovascular diseases have become more prevalent and threatening to the health of the population of Asia due to the rapidly growing number of aging people. The Asian Society for Vascular Surgery unites 13 member organizations: Japan, Korea, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Thailand. The essential mission of the Asian Society for Vascular Surgery is to improve training in vascular surgery to increase the number of competent vascular surgeons in Asia. Almost every member country has its own vascular training program. Most curricula for vascular surgery training are composed of basic vascular research, clinical vascular medicine, vascular investigation, and open and endovascular surgery, with the period of training ranging from 2 to 4 years.