Developing and transferring a children's surgical training program from India to Africa a south-to-south global
Vrisha Madhuri1,2, Richard J Stewart3, Kokila Lakhoo4
1Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. madhuriwalter@hotmail.com.
Insights
This study highlights the critical need for pediatric surgical care in lower middle-income countries. A successful hub-and-spoke training initiative equipped healthcare teams to improve access to essential children's surgery services.
Area of Science:
- Global Health
- Surgical Training
- Pediatric Surgery
Background:
- Limited availability of pediatric surgical care in lower-middle-income countries.
- Significant disparities in access to essential surgical services for children in Asia and Africa.
- Shared challenges including disease burden, poverty, and infrastructure deficits hinder surgical care provision.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a hub-and-spoke global training initiative for pediatric surgery.
- To train adult surgical teams from district hospitals (spokes) and specialist trainers from tertiary centers (hubs).
- To enhance the capacity for delivering pediatric surgical training in resource-limited settings.
Main Methods:
- Development and implementation of a pediatric surgical training course in Vellore, India.
- Training of district hospital teams and trainer teams within India.
- International training of specialist surgical teams from African countries to replicate the course.
Main Results:
- Participants completed a 'train the trainer' program and evaluated the district hospital training course.
- Positive feedback received, indicating the program's suitability and effectiveness.
- Government support for similar initiatives and ongoing discussions for expansion in participating countries.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric surgical care is critically limited across Asian and African continents.
- South-to-South collaboration is beneficial for sharing training skills and modules among pediatric surgical trainers.
- Addressing shared challenges is essential for improving pediatric surgical care access and outcomes.
Purpose:
The availability of children's surgical care in lower middle-income countries is lacking. The authors describe a hub and spoke global training initiative in children's surgery for adult teams from district hospitals (spokes) comprising general and orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists, and nurses and specialist children's surgical trainers from tertiary centres (hubs) in delivering the course.
Methods:
The training course developed in Vellore, trained several sets of district hospital adult teams and trainer teams in India. Six specialist children's surgical trainer teams were invited from African countries to the course delivered in Vellore, India. The aim was to train them to deliver the course in their countries.
Results:
Participants underwent a precourse 'train the trainer' program, observed and assessed the suitability of the district hospital training course. The program received positive feedback, government supported planning of similar courses in some of the countries and discussions in others.
Conclusion:
The availability of children's surgical care is similarly limited in the Asian and African continent, and the regions have shared challenges of disease burden, lack of access, poverty, deficient infrastructure, and trained human resources. They would benefit from this 'South to South' collaboration to impart training skills and modules to the children's surgical trainers.
