2nd Annual Conference on Surgery and Anesthesia

VANCOUVER, Canada - This past weekend the University of British Columbia's Branch for International Surgery in collaboration with GPAS and several other partners hosted the Second Annual Conference on Surgery and Anesthesia in Uganda.

This years conference picked up right where last years left off... there has been lots of great progress and brainstorming on collaboration it the mean time. A big thanks to the folks at UBC for hosting and everyone who participated.

Speakers and attendees this year included Dr. Sam Kaggwa (Head of Department of Surgery - Mulago Hospital), Dr. Angela Enright (President, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists), Dr. Sam Zaramba (Former Director of Health Services, Ministry of Health, Uganda), Dr. Tito Beyeza (Head of Makerere Department of Orthopedics), and Dr. Norgrove Penny (CBM International) among many others.

The goal of this meeting (of predominantly academic surgery and anesthesia groups) is to promote greater collaboration among those active in Uganda and to create a forum to explore and harmonize strategies for improving capacity to provide surgical services in resource-poor settings.

The four primary topics - training/research, Economics of developing a strong health system, Scalability, and Enduring partnerships - sparked lively debate and discussions throughout the day.

While a concrete set of resolutions has not yet been reached, several strategies for moving forward were suggested including:

• Creation of coordination desk in Uganda for collaborators
• Greater coordination of teaching/training visits
• Improved research training opportunities and mentorship for Ugandan faculty and trainees
• Curriculum redesign and supplementation
• Creation of a surgical disease burden / disability task force within the MOH
• Consensus guidelines for donations to Mulago surgery, anesthesia, and casualty departments
• Identifying and organizing discrete joint teaching workshops that augment current curriculum
• Lobbying MOH for MMed tuition waivers for priority positions
• Lobbying MOH for increased staff positions for postgraduates
• Identification of one rural health center as a remote teaching, training site
• Using policy and activities to discourage brain drain (ie poaching foreign medical graduates for North America)

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Links:

• Complete conference video
  
• Online conference discussion forum
  
• Select conference presentations slides
  • Enduring Partnerships - Norgrove Penny CM, MD, FRCS
  • Task Shifting - by Shafique Pirani

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