InterSurgeon Partners: building our future

The International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) seeks to promote the health of children throughout the world by encouraging the ethical transmission and exchange of neuroscientific information and techniques related to Pediatric Neurosurgery. We are very pleased that the ISPN was one of our founder partners, providing essential financial backing to start the development of the website thereby promoting International Collaborative partnerships. InterSurgeon was launched specifically to the Paediatric Neurosurgical community where it has proved a great success and so it is now rolling out into other surgical disciplines. We are proud that Paediatric Neurosurgery and the ISPN have led the way!

Today, we face a global health paradox: in a world where technological advances in everything from cell phones to cellular microbiology have touched lives everywhere, there has never been as broad a divide in health status among disparate populations. The health challenges of our world are not small, but too often our perspectives on these challenges have been too narrow. Confined to discrete categories of geography, diseases and disciplines, our picture of world well-being has missed the very thing that would make global health, global – an integrative point of view that embraces a multidimensional vision of world health. However, we are confident that shared learning, collaborative solutions, and innovative action – designed and fulfilled through principled partnerships across sectors – can overcome inequities to make the world more healthy and more whole. The Children’s of Alabama Global Surgery Program seeks to expand and enhance Children’s pediatric surgical and medical expertise through collaborative, reciprocal arrangements with medical communities in targeted parts of the world. Through this global initiative, surgeons travel to partner pediatric hospitals worldwide to perform surgery, educate, and provide expertise in the creation of standardized management protocols for complex surgical diseases. Additionally, surgeons and research coordinators from those partner institutions travel to Birmingham for training fellowships to advance their knowledge and skills, and to participate in research endeavors.

NEUROSURGERY OUTREACH FOUNDATION (NOF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Jacksonville, Florida whose mission is to promote the advancement of neurosurgical care in underserved communities through service, education, and support. It is completely run by volunteers to ensure that our programs continue to serve those in need. They are: Educational Surgical Mission (ESM) are comprehensive, education-based missions where volunteer surgeons teach, train, and treat alongside host neurosurgeons updated techniques to benefit local patients; Dr. Benigno S. Aldana, Jr., Educational Awards are presented to deserving neurosurgical residents to help them in the successful completion of their training; Equipment and Patient Care Support are gifts of re-purposed or newly acquired equipment, instruments, supplies; and funds to benefit indigent patients to have access to neurosurgical treatment.

According to the WHO, more than 5 million people die every year (14,000 every day) as a result of trauma, accounting for 9% of the world’s deaths. Trauma also results in millions of non-fatal injuries leading to life-long disability. Of all the types of injuries, those to the brain are the most likely to result in death or permanent disability. About 90% of injury-related deaths occur in LMICs. We have made considerable progress in the treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the UK and other high income countries (HICs) and it now essential that we translate this to LMICs.
The NIHR Global Health Research Group on Neurotrauma aims to work with partners in Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia with the aim of improving the care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) across 4 themes to the project: i. THEME 1 – MAPPING TBI CARE.
We will define the current landscape of TBI care in LMICs. We will map resources and establish neurotrauma registries of patient demography, treatment and outcome. ii. THEME 2 – UNDERSTANDING TBI CARE.
We are using a systems engineering approach to develop an in-depth understanding of the challenges associated with improving TBI care in terms of frameworks, stakeholders and critical issues. iii. THEME 3 – GENERATING AND IMPLEMENTING INNOVATION IN TBI.
We will implement strategies to refine the TBI management pathways and apply novel approaches tailored to the LMICs (improved methods of investigation, treatment, outcome data collection). iv. THEME 4 – MEASURING AND NURTURING RESEARCH CAPACITY.
We will determine the types of research output from LMICs and resources available for research, and nurture capacity by various mechanisms.