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Training low–middle-income (LMIC) pediatric surgeons in a high-income country (HIC) program

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Abstract

Background

A popular paradigm to support surgical education for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is partnering with high-income country (HIC) surgeons. These relationships may, however, be asymmetric and fail to optimally address the most pressing curricular needs. We explored the effectiveness of our LMIC-HIC educational partnership.

Methods

Through a partnership between a HIC (Canada) and a LMIC (Uganda), three candidate surgeons were commissioned for a custom designed 1-year training experience at our HIC accredited pediatric surgical training centre as part of their overall formal education. The training curriculum was developed in collaboration with the LMIC pediatric surgeon and utilized competency-based medical education principles. A Likert and short-answer survey tool was administered to these trainees upon completion of their training.

Results

All prescribed milestones as well as specialty certification by examination of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa was achieved by participating fellows, each of whom have begun clinical practice, leadership and teaching roles in their home country. Although several obstacles were identified by fellows, all agreed that the experience boosted their clinical and teaching abilities, and was worth the effort.

Conclusion

This endeavour in global pediatric surgical training represents a significant innovation in surgical education partnerships and would be reproducible across different surgical subspecialties and contexts. Such collaborative efforts represent a feasible upskilling opportunity towards addressing global surgical service capacity.

Level of evidence

V.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, UBC Division of Pediatric Surgery, British Columbia Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, 4480 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6H 3V4, Canada

    Robert Baird, Sonia Butterworth, Damian Duffy & Geoffrey Blair

  2. Department of Surgery, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

    Phyllis Kisa, Arlene Muzira & Anne S. Wesonga

  3. Department of Surgery, Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda

    John Sekabira

  4. Division of Pediatric Urology, Department of Urologic Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Andrew E. MacNeily

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  1. Robert Baird
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  2. Phyllis Kisa
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  3. Arlene Muzira
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  4. Anne S. Wesonga
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  9. Geoffrey Blair
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Correspondence to Robert Baird.

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Baird, R., Kisa, P., Muzira, A. et al. Training low–middle-income (LMIC) pediatric surgeons in a high-income country (HIC) program. Pediatr Surg Int 38, 269–276 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00383-021-05027-5

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