Since its creation in January 2021, the Global Surgery Lab has steadily grown and built relationships, collaborations and programs to improve access to quality surgical care undersexed areas. With more than 50 members, a part-time program manager and key partners in different disciplines, our Lab now has the capacity to build innovative and sustainable platforms for surgical education, benefiting providers in the most isolated regions in the world.
Our next steps include creating longitudinal and rigorous research capacity with a Global Surgery Lab Research Fellow, obtaining funding to digitize our Essential Skills (ESS) training platform, rolling out the ESS program in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa and adapting our educational offerings to the needs of rural Canada.
Key Highlights (past 6 months)
- Launch of second cohort of Essential Surgical Skills Training Program – MSF-supported hospital in Aweil, South Sudan. 2 trainees. Program start May 1 2023.
- GSL Symposium, “Global surgery goes rural”, April 28th 2023 – 77 registrants, 30 in-person attendees. Nurses, Family Physicians, surgeons, residents, students, administrators. Feedback was overall positive. Participants highlighted multidisciplinary nature, importance of the issue, and great morning talks. In terms of room for improvement, participants noted difficulty for virtual participants to contribute to discussion, no break-out for virtual participants, and no clear outcome of the meeting.
- Rural Global Health Partnership Initiative (RGHPI) Grant (10k) – Awarded to Dr. Ryan Falk and the GSL for the creation of a Virtual Educational Platform Working Group, to create an educational resource for Family Physicians with Enhanced Surgical Skills (FPESS) / Family Physicians with Enhanced Obstetrical Skills (OSS) in Canada.
- Membership – currently 57 active members.
- Partnership – the GSL officially counts the Canadian Orthopedic Association as a partner. They are supporting us in the orthopedic portion of the ESS curriculum.
- Advocacy – GSL Program Manager Meena Amlani attending the 76th World Health Assembly and the Global Surgery Foundation side event on May 23rd in Geneva, Switzerland.
Outputs (past 6 monts)
Publications
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- Salehi M, Zivcovic I, Mayronnne S, Letoquart JP, Joharifard S, Joos E. The Evaluation of a Surgical Task-Sharing Program in South Sudan. Surgeries. 2023. DOI: 10.3390/surgeries4020019
- Livergant, R J, Fraulin G, Stefanyk K, Binda C, Maleki S, Joharifard S, Hillier T, Joos E. Postoperative morbidity and mortality in pediatric indigenous populations: a scoping review and meta-analysis.Pediatric Surgery International vol 39, article number 129, 2023
Abstracts Accepted to Bethune Round Table 2023
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- Scope-of-care and capacity assessment of global rural and remote pre-hospital systems, Zivcovic
- Delphi for sustainable global surgery partnerships, Binda
- Planetary Health Courses around the world: an environmental scan, Vayalikunnel
- Mapping surgical services in BC, McDonald
- Post-operative morbidity and mortality in Indigenous patients, Fraulin
Keynote Presentations
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- Shahrzad Joharifard – UBC Department of Surgery Grand Rounds – Feb 2023
- Shahrzad Joharifard – Baylor Global Surgery Residency Program – March 2023
- Emilie Joos – Baylor Global Surgery Residency Program – March 2023
- Emilie Joos – University of Ottawa Department of Surgery Grand Rounds – April 2023
- Emilie Joos – McGill Global Surgery Conference – April 2023
For more info see the Global Surgery Lab website.