Lancet Commission on Global Surgery Newsletter: August 2015
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
We hope this finds you well! In this month’s newsletter, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery documents our ongoing efforts across the globe. We are working with officials at the World Bank, partnering with Ministries of Health for our single country studies, and continuing to disseminate the findings of our report in upcoming regional launches. If you or your country are interested in being more involved with these efforts, please look for opportunities stated in our newsletter. Thank you and happy reading!
Including Surgery in the World Development Indicators
The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery published our findings earlier this year: Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development. The report highlights the importance of measuring 6 key indicators, which serve as basic measurements of the strength of national surgical systems. We have been working with the World Bank to include the Commission’s core indicators within the World Development Indicator (WDI) list.
To make this possible, our goal is to collect data from at least 50% of the World Bank’s 215 countries for each indicator. This has been a remarkable undertaking for the group, and we are happy to report that our efforts to reach out to Ministries of Health all around the world have been rewarding thus far. As of August 1st, we have obtained data from over 40 countries, and have active communication more than 50 additional countries. We hope you can join our efforts in reaching as many more countries as possible.
If you have contacts in your country’s Ministry of Health who may be able to help with this effort, we would love to hear from you! Please send us an email at indicators@lancetgscommission.com
Single Country Studies
The Commission reported 6 core indicators which we believe are critical in identifying opportunities to strengthen surgical systems and develop national surgical plans. We have made impressive strides to model many of these indicators in countries around the globe. Our next step is to take a closer look at these data through on-the-ground data collection in a few select countries. These “single country studies” will allow us to get a more complete look at each country’s surgical systems, improve our global modeling, and ultimately to provide information to these ministries of health on the most effective ways to improve the strength of their national surgical systems. Currently, we have plans to carry out single country studies in Uganda, Cape Verde, and Zambia.
Uganda
The first single country study is currently underway in Uganda. A research team is spending the next year in Uganda collecting data on these 6 indicators. There will be a special focus on the measurement of post-operative mortality rate, which has proved a more challenging indicator to collect.
Photo taken from: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/uganda
Cape Verde
The Commission is working with the Cape Verde Ministry of Health, Cape Verdean clinical leaders and clinicians from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts) towards a deeper assessment of the Cape Verdean surgical capacity. Through this collaboration, we hope to help identify priorities for surgical system strengthening in the ten-island nation.
Zambia
Representatives of the Zambian government have approached the Commission to seek out ways of implementing the National Surgical Plan put forth by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. Together, we are working to identify projects that will add the most value to surgical systems in Zambia.
If you are interested in conducting a single country study in your country, we would love to collaborate! Please send us an email at indicators@lancetgscommission.com
Upcoming Regional Launches
The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery is excited to announce several more regional launches of the Global Surgery Commission report: Global Surgery 2030; evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development.
- Chicago, USA (October 5th, 2015): The American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress will host a panel session dedicated to delivering the key messages of The Commission report.
- Dubai, UAE (October 25, 2015): Our Commission will be featured at the official launch of the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery-Dubai.
Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Center – site of the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Deilvery-Dubai. Photo taken from http://www.informationdynamix.com/
- Melbourne, Australia (October 26, 2015): The 4th RACS Global Health Symposium will be hosted by both The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.
- Karad, India (November 19th, 2015): The Association of Rural Surgeons will host our Commission during a pre-conference event.
If your organization is interested in featuring our report, we would love to be involved. Please send us an email at indicators@lancetgscommission.com.
Thank you!
Thank you to all of our partners and collaborators who have joined us in the cause for increasing safe and affordable access to surgical care when needed for all and for disseminating the key findings of The Commission report at their regional meetings.
Visit our Lancet website, which contains information about the Commission, as well as recent articles and podcasts. We are also still available on globalsurgery.info as well as Twitter and Facebook.