Global general pediatric surgery partnership: The UCLA–Mozambique experience

Abstract

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE There has been increasing recognition of the disparities in surgical care throughout the world. Increasingly, efforts are being made to improve local infrastructure and training of surgeons in low-income settings. The purpose of this study was to review the first 5-years of a global academic pediatric general surgery partnership between UCLA and the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. METHODS A mixed-methods approach was utilized to perform an ongoing needs assessment. A retrospective review of admission and operative logbooks was performed. Partnership activities were summarized. RESULTS The needs assessment identified several challenges including limited operative time, personnel, equipment, and resources. Review of logbooks identified a high frequency of burn admissions and colorectal procedures. Partnership activities focused on providing educational resources, on-site proctoring, training opportunities, and research collaboration. CONCLUSION This study highlights the spectrum of disease and operative case volume of a referral center for general pediatric surgery in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it provides a context for academic partnership activities to facilitate training and improve the quality of pediatric general surgical care in limited-resource settings.

International pediatric surgery partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping literature review

“…These partnerships are focused on pediatric surgical education for surgical trainees and practicing surgeons in SSA, along with supporting other activities such as research. Two partnerships between an American university and a university in SSA [ 16 , 60 ]. Two partnerships between an American university and a teaching hospital in Kenya that has close ties to Kenyan universities [ 14 , 55 ].…”

“…Twelve surgical specialties were represented, with cardiac surgery (21 articles, 34%) [ 14 , 15 , 17–20 , 22 , 25 , 29 , 32 , 37 , 39–42 , 47 , 48 , 53 , 61 , 66 , 67 ] and general pediatric surgery (14 articles, 23%) [ 14 , 16 , 27 , 31 , 45 , 50 , 54 , 56 , 58 , 60 , 63–65 , 68 ] being the most common ( Figure 3 ).

Figure 3.

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“…In the short-term surgical trip category, 15 of 29 articles (52%) included education, followed by NGO partnership (13/28, 46%), long-term surgical volunteers (1/3, 33%), and international patient transfer (1/6, 17%). Five articles (8%) included training general surgeons in pediatric surgical techniques [ 31 , 33 , 34 , 60 , 64 ]. In total, 17 articles (27%) included education or training for non-surgeon, peri-op health-care providers, such as nurses or anesthetists [ 10 , 11 , 15 , 16 , 22 , 26 , 28 , 31 , 33 , 36 , 38 , 42 , 58–60 , 62 , 64 ] (see Table A3 for the types of peri-op providers trained).…”

“…In 15 articles, partnership activities focused on education only or did not involve direct operation on host country patients. For these articles, post-op follow-up and patient outcomes were deemed not applicable [ 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 45 , 54–56 , 60 , 61 , 64 , 66–68 ]. In the remaining 48 articles, 21 (45%) included post-op follow-up care [ 12 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 20–23 , 27 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 35 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 49 , 53 , 58 , 70 , 71 ] and 31 (66%) included post-op patient outcomes [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 20–23 , 27 , 28 , 30–36 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 49 , 51–53 , 58 , 59 , 65 , 69–71 ].…”

Development of a pediatric ophthalmology academic partnership between Canada and Ethiopia: a situational analysis

“…Needs assessments are an effective means of identifying priorities for educational programs and international academic partnerships, in collaboration with local stakeholders [11,15,17,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Observation of clinical cases enabled real world experience on how team members from both centres may deliver a collaborative training program.…”