Burden of Surgical Disease: Strategies to Manage an Existing Public Health Emergency

Abstract

The World Health Organization estimates that the burden of surgical disease due to war, self-inflicted injuries, and road traffic incidents will rise dramatically by 2020. During the 2009 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative's Humanitarian Action Summit (HHI/HAS), members of the Burden of Surgical Disease Working Group met to review the state of surgical epidemiology, the unmet global surgical need, and the role international organizations play in filling the surgical gap during humanitarian crises, conflict, and war. An outline of the group's findings and recommendations is provided.

Surgery as a public health intervention: common misconceptions versus the truth

“…According to a recent study, one third of injury-related mortalities affect those aged 15-44 years, the most economically productive segment of the population. 6 Moreover, the role of surgical care extends beyond treatment of injuries. Surgery is one of the key elements of primary care, and includes managing traumatic joint dislocations, treating open fractures to prevent osteomyelitis and draining abscesses.…”

Critically Assessing the Haiti Earthquake Response and the Barriers to Quality Orthopaedic Care

“…The AAOS website will have a section dedicated entirely to disaster preparedness training and credentialing that, in collaboration with the HHS/NDMS and US military, might also function as a database of civilian medical personnel qualified and credentialed as a disaster responder by the federal government. This database could collect surgical data during the disaster as a means of program monitoring and evaluation [13,43], and facilitate individual civilian responders, supply distribution, and organizational communication.…”

Taking Specialist Surgical Services to the Rural District Hospitals at One Forth Cost: A Sustainable ‘Return on Investment’ Public Health Initiative of Patan Hospital, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal

“…10,11 The LMICs have one-third of global population, but they have only 3.5-5% surgical services performed globally. 12 The 'insufficient, inequitable distributions' of resources in district hospital (DH) needs to be addressed to make 'ESASA' accessible to rural population.…”