On the agenda: Promoting surgery globally for equitable health
The two-day Global Surgery Conference on October 4-5 in Stockholm combines several aspects in the field of global surgery. You will be able to meet and interact with professionals within surgery and anesthesia from all over the world.
This event is all about having a diverse group of clinicians, students and researchers come together and listen, talk, reflect and network with peers who all share an interest in the area of Global Surgery. An amazing group of speakers at the forefont of Global surgery will share their invaluable experience in the field from both, clinical work and research. One of the topics on the 4th October is on the promotion of surgery globally for equitable health. The two moderators will be Gustaf Drevin, final year medical student and researcher in Global Surgery, together with Jenny Löfgren, physician, researcher and lecturer in Global Surgery, both at the Karolinska Institutet.
Surgical priority areas and pushing the agenda forward
Speaker: Lars Hagander, Sweden. Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Malmö-Lund University hospital, Associate professor in Surgery and one of three initiators of the Lancet Commission of Global Surgery.
Political priority for surgical care varies among different countries. Little is known about the social and political factors that influence priority setting for different health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this talk we will investigate factors that facilitate or prevent surgical care from being prioritized in LMICs.
Advocacy, policy making and the role of national and international organizations - examples from the WHO and SIDA
Speaker: Anders Nordström, Sweden. Physician and Ambassador for Global Health at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The sources for financing the health sector as well as the mechanisms used to allocate those resources within the health system directly affect the access of health services in LMICs and the final health outcome. National health systems receive resources and technical assistance from many different national and international organizations with varied priorities and demands. In this talk Dr Nordström will give us his perspective on the role of international organizations on global health.
Innovation and “reversed innovation” in global surgery
The Herculean task of combatting groin hernia - examples from West Africa
Speaker: Jessica Beard, USA (@jessicahbeard). Consultant in Surgical Critical Care, General and Trauma Surgery. Assistant Professor of Surgery, Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Her global surgery research is focused on epidemiology, education, and capacity building for groin hernia repair in Tanzania and Ghana. She is also actively involved in research on gun violence prevention in the US.
High income countries have long been seen as the prime driving forces for innovation and technology. However, with increasing financial pressures and growing public spending present throughout most of the western world perhaps health practices and inventions, developed in resource scarce settings, could successfully be implemented in high income countries. This talk is especially interesting as high income countries are increasingly faced with delivering good patient outcomes with less resources.
Inguinal hernia repair has been overlooked as a public health priority in Africa. In Africa, untreated inguinal hernias have a serious economic impact and high burden of unnecessary disease and mortality. Much of this burden is preventable with low-cost surgery. In this talk, Dr Beard will replace a Ghanaian speaker who had to cancel on short notice. Dr Beard will share new research data and plans on the war on hernia in West Africa.