Development of an Interactive Global Surgery Course for Interdisciplinary Learners.
Date
2021-03
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Abstract
Introduction
Global surgical care is increasingly recognized in the global health agenda and requires multidisciplinary engagement. Despite high interest among medical students, residents and other learners, many surgical faculty and health experts remain uniformed about global surgical care.Methods
We have operated an interdisciplinary graduate-level course in Global Surgical Care based on didactics and interactive group learning. Students completed a pre- and post-course survey regarding their learning experiences and results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.Results
Fourteen students completed the pre-course survey, and 11 completed the post-course survey. Eleven students (79%) were enrolled in a Master's degree program in global health, with eight students (57%) planning to attend medical school. The median ranking of surgery on the global health agenda was fifth at the beginning of the course and third at the conclusion (p = 0.11). Non-infectious disease priorities tended to stay the same or increase in rank from pre- to post-course. Infectious disease priorities tended to decrease in rank (HIV/AIDS, p = 0.07; malaria, p = 0.02; neglected infectious disease, p = 0.3). Students reported that their understanding of global health (p = 0.03), global surgery (p = 0.001) and challenges faced by the underserved (p = 0.03) improved during the course. When asked if surgery was an indispensable part of healthcare, before the course 64% of students strongly agreed, while after the course 91% of students strongly agreed (p = 0.3). Students reported that the interactive nature of the course strengthened their skills in collaborative problem-solving.Conclusions
We describe an interdisciplinary global surgery course that integrates didactics with team-based projects. Students appeared to learn core topics and held a different view of global surgery after the course. Similar courses in global surgery can educate clinicians and other stakeholders about strategies for building healthy surgical systems worldwide.Type
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Publication Info
Fitzgerald, Tamara N, Nyagetuba JK Muma, John A Gallis, Grey Reavis, Alvan Ukachukwu, Emily R Smith, Osondu Ogbuoji, Henry E Rice, et al. (2021). Development of an Interactive Global Surgery Course for Interdisciplinary Learners. Annals of global health, 87(1). p. 33. 10.5334/aogh.3178 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/29361.
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Scholars@Duke
Tamara Noel Fitzgerald
My academic interest is global pediatric surgery. There are millions of children worldwide who do not have access to safe surgery for congenital anomalies and acquired conditions. As a result, many children in low-middle income countries live with chronic disability or die before they can access surgical care. In many cultures, congenital problems may also lead to social isolation or catastrophic health expenditure for families.
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have just a handful of qualified surgeons. For example, in Uganda, the country where I have most frequently worked, there are 4 general pediatric surgeons for a country of 39 million people. This would be the equivalent of 32 pediatric surgeons serving the entire United States. There are neighboring countries with no pediatric surgeons.
My work focuses on surgical capacity building - empowering and working with local surgeons in low-middle income countries to increase numbers of surgical providers, improve quality and increase surgical support services such as intensive care and anesthesia services. I have several ongoing projects regarding the burden of surgical disease for patients and their families in low-middle income countries, surgical training and capacity building.
John Gallis
Overview
John currently collaborates with researchers and methodologists at the Duke Global Health Institute and the Duke Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics. His varied research experience includes design and analysis of weight loss-related randomized controlled trials (RCTs), design and analysis of cluster randomized trials (cRCTs), and implementation of the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST). Recently, he has primarily worked with researchers examining the effects of interventions on maternal mental health and child health and development. His research interests include the design of cRCTs and analysis methods for clustered data, among many other interests.
Education
Master of Science (Sc.M.) in Biostatistics. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Mathematics: Southern Utah University
Links:
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gallis-2258b843/
Duke website: https://sites.duke.edu/johngallis/
Emily R Smith
Emily Smith, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Duke University with research interests including children’s global surgery, poverty metrics, health economics, and global health policy. As an epidemiologist, she has worked with her in-country partners at the Edna Adan Hospital in Somaliland for the past 5 years on projects related to children’s surgical care, including defining the epidemiologic burden, assessing poverty trajectories among families with a child’s surgical need, geospatial analyses, and healthcare infrastructure. Prior to DGHI, her work at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) involved utilizing epidemiological methods, mathematical modeling techniques and cost-effectiveness research to determine effectiveness of various testing strategies among HIV exposed infants in sub-Saharan Africa.
Henry Elliot Rice
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