Surgery and Anesthesia Capacity-Building in Resource-Poor Settings: Description of an Ongoing Academic Partnership in Uganda
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
World journal of surgery
Abstract
Surgery and perioperative care have been neglected in the arena of global health despite evidence of
cost-effectiveness and the growing, substantial burden of surgical conditions. Various approaches to address the
surgical disease crisis have been reported. This article describes the strategy of Global Partners in Anesthesia and
Surgery (GPAS), an academically based, capacity-building collaboration between North American and Ugandan
teaching institutions. Methods The collaboration’s projects shift away from the trainee exchange, equipment donation, and clinical service delivery models. Instead, it focuses on three locally identified objectives to improve surgical and perioperative
care capacity in Uganda: workforce expansion, research, collaboration. Results Recruitment programs from 2007 to 2011 helped
increase the number of surgery and anesthesia trainees at Mulago Hospital (Kampala, Uganda) from 20 to 40 and 2
to 19, respectively. All sponsored trainees successfully graduated and remained in the region. Postgraduate academic
positions were created and filled to promote workforce retention. A local research agenda was developed,
more than 15 collaborative, peer-reviewed papers have been published, and the first competitive research grant for
a principal investigator in the Department of Surgery at Mulago was obtained. A local projects coordinator
position and an annual conference were created and jointly funded by partnering international efforts to promote
collaboration
Description
Keywords
Surgery, Anesthesia Capacity, Academic Partnership, Uganda
Citation
Lipnick, M., Mijumbi, C., Dubowitz, G., Kaggwa, S., Goetz, L., Mabweijano, J., ... & Ozgediz, D. (2013). Surgery and anesthesia capacity-building in resource-poor settings: description of an ongoing academic partnership in Uganda. World journal of surgery, 37(3), 488-497.DOI 10.1007/s00268-012-1848-x