South Africa Trauma Course

Amber Caldwell is traveling to South Africa for the next two months to work under the auspices of IGOT "Institute for Global Orthopedics and Traumatology".  I will be working with the local surgeons and physicians to help develop a primary trauma course for regional providers.  I will be researching how to effectively provide access to the course, resources and the use of cell phones as a possible means of communicating care and treatment.

To follow up on her work, please see the following Blog and Podcast sites:

http://www.amberinsouthafrica.blogspot.com/

http://www.sustainableglobalhealth.org/

UCSF Global Health Clinical Scholars Program

General 

The UCSF Global Health Sciences program has initiated a project to develop leaders in global health in various clinical specialties called the Global Health Clinical Scholars Program (GHCSP). The goal is to educate physicians-in-training with the skills necessary to partner with educators and health care providers in underserved areas of the world to bring about sustainable improvements in healthcare.  The GHCSP is designed to provide training and experience in global health issues for selected residents from participating departments.  Residents who wish to participate in the program apply by submitting a resume and personal statement, which are reviewed by a multidisciplinary selection committee.  Those selected for the program initially attend a three week long course of lectures and seminars during which time they meet other participants in the program.  This course of study focuses on subjects such as health economics, cultural competency, comparative health systems, principles of public health, infectious diseases, nutrition and malnutrition, and refugee and disaster medicine, to name a few. Seminars, lectures and web-based learning continue during the ensuing years of their residencies.  Each scholar selects a research mentor and designs a hypothesis-based research project as a requirement for completion of the program. Clinical scholars are expected to spend at least a month in the region where their projects are to be undertaken.  At the completion of residency, each clinical scholar will receive a certificate indicating successful completion of this specialized course of study.

Orthopaedic Surgery and the Global Health Scholars Program

The UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is focusing educational effort in the field of global health by taking part in an inaugural UCSF Medical School initiative to prepare future physicians for leading roles in research, development, education and outreach in this field.

Starting with the resident class of 2010, one member of each class will be designated as the department’s Global Health Clinical Scholar.  This individual will participate in an educational program that is being coordinated by the Global Health Sciences program at UCSF.  The first Global Health Scholar selected is Dr. Tenner Guillaume.

The objective of the program is to facilitate and provide resources for the Global Health Scholar to pursue an area of concentration within global health related to the field of orthopaedic surgery.  In pursuit of this goal, the scholar will take a series of courses in public health, participate in seminars with scholars from other departments and around the world, and carry out research in partner institutions in developing countries.  

The courses that are being planned for the participants will focus on subjects such as health economics, cultural competency, comparative health systems, principles of public health, infectious diseases, epidemiology, nutrition and malnutrition, and refugee and disaster medicine, to name a few. Each orthopaedic Global Health Clinical Scholar will work with a mentor within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery to develop a project pertinent to a musculoskeletal health problem in a developing country, and will spend a period of time pursuing this project in that country.

By participating in The Global Health Sciences Clinical Scholars Program, the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery is hoping to train a new generation of surgeon-leaders for the global community, whose focus will be to research and address disparities in health care both at home and abroad.

OrthoJamaica

OrthoJamaica is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving care of injured people in Jamaica, West Indies through donated orthopedic education and hardware.  With institutional support and 501c3 certification through IGOT, OrthoJamaica is a sustaining an academic partnership between orthopedic training programs at UCSF and the University of the West Indies.

To visit OrthoJamaica’s website or to learn more about this project please go to: www.orthojamaica.org

IGOT’s Collaboration with Clinical Research Group at SFGH

Promoting research as part of IGOT mission involves UCSF Orthopedic Surgery residents, medical students interested in pursuing year-off research opportunities, and international partners as a way to investigate preventive and therapeutic solutions to locally relevant problems in partnering sites.  The clinical research program at SFGH is geared to addressing questions relevant to trauma and underserved populations treated at our public Level 1 trauma hospital, and to translate these investigations into improved care for our patients.  It serves as the local "methods center" for our international collaborations as well, drawing on local expertise to inform our endeavors abroad.

Pediatrics Chronic Osteomyelitis: Mulago, Uganda

PI: George Rutherford, MD and Saam Morshed, MD, MPH
Research Coordinator: Christine Stanley, MS 4 UCSF School of Medicine

Chronic osteomyelitis in children is a source of disability and burden on the health care system in many developing countries.  In order to better understand the disease-associated risk factors, cultural beliefs, diagnostic difficulties and barriers to treatment, we plan to conduct formative research in Uganda over a 6 month period, including qualitative and quantitative components. 

We will use focus groups to obtain the caregivers' perspective on identifying and treating children with bone infections.  Open-ended questions and dialogue between caregivers will give us insight into the understanding about bone infections that exist in the non-medically trained community and terminology used when discussing these bone infections.  We will conduct semi-structured interviews with hospital and community based health care professionals that diagnose and treat osteomyelitis in children.  Interviews of health care providers will acquire information about their experience with osteomyelitis, their opinions about the diagnosis and treatment of the condition and their understanding of the barriers that prevent adequate treatment of these infections. 

The quantitative branch of this project will consist of a prospective case series of osteomyelitis at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.  Study subjects will include children 18 years-old or younger that present to Mulago Hospital with acute or chronic osteomyelitis.  The information we collect on these patients will help us to characterize osteomyelitis in this population, identify important risk factors for developing the condition, and quantify the burden of chronic osteomyelitis and its complications.  We will also document and track the current therapies used to treat chronic osteomyelitis.