Off The Table: A Global Surgery Podcast

By: Off The Table: A Global Surgery Podcast on behalf of the Global Surgery Lab
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  • Summary

  • We are a diverse group of people who deeply care about improving access to surgical care worldwide and believe that those solutions come from the ground up. Our mission is to create an environment to have safe conversations about equitable surgical care globally. To give a voice to surgical providers on the ground to express the challenges of delivering surgical care in their contexts. To highlight equitable global surgical partnerships, free from neocolonialism. To offer evidence-based approaches to building capacity in surgical care and to be impactful by sending a call to action after each conversation. Contact: instagram: ott_globalsurgery twitter: OFFTHETABLE_POD email: offthetablepod21@gmail.com patreon: https://www.patreon.com/offthetablepodcast Contributors (On Behalf of the Global Surgery Lab): Founders: Dr. Emilie Joos, Dr. Shahrzad Joharifard, Dr. Alreem Al Hinai Hosts: Dr. Emilie Joos, Dr. Alreem Al Hinai, Paul Rakoczy, Amuna Ma Editor: Dr. Cara Weessies Social Media Team: Bita Mojtahedzadeh, Selina Park, Sheila Lam, Catherine Binda, Lydia Feng, Noah Boroditsky Guest Research Team: Mariah Moti, Mathilde Bilau, Muntha Shoaib, Rachel Livergant, James Kennedy Show Notes: James Kennedy
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Episodes
  • 7: Empowering Medical Autonomy – Healthcare Has No Beneficiaries

    7: Empowering Medical Autonomy – Healthcare Has No Beneficiaries
    May 15 2022
    Welcome to our seventh episode, featuring the inspiring husband and wife duo, Dr. Nandakumar Menon and Dr. Shylaja (Shyla) Devi. In this episode we welcome two extraordinary individuals who have made an enormous impact on improving healthcare accessibility and delivery for indigenous populations in rural India. Shyla, a gynecologist, and Nandakumar, a surgeon, selflessly dropped a successful practice and comfortable lifestyle in the United States to follow their dreams of starting a hospital for underprivileged populations in their home country. They landed in Gudalur Valley with dreams of aiding the Adivasi, a historically persecuted tribal indigenous population in India. The Adivasi have suffered from hundreds of years of prejudicial colonial oppression leading to their complete societal isolation. Abandoned by the government and cut off from modern medicine, the Adivasi lived in extremely poor health with debilitatingly high maternal and child mortality, and rampant casualties from treatable health conditions and complications. This egregious neglect inspired the duo to help the Advisasi obtain adequate healthcare, and so, the Association for Health Welfare of the Nilgiri (ASHWINI) was founded in 1990. ASHWINI is a charitable organization with the mission of establishing healthcare facilities to serve the Adivasi. Most importantly, Shyla and Nandakumar knew that if they were to gain the trust of these individuals and truly make a difference, they would have to empower the Adivasi to embrace their own medical autonomy. They decided that these institutions must be both owned and managed by the Adivasi people themselves. Thus, in one of the most pristine examples of capacity building and decolonizing healthcare, the Gudalur Adivasi Hospital was established. This hospital has grown to have 50 beds and 8 community sub-centres. It trains and employs the Adivasi people as nurses and other healthcare personnel and is self-sustaining. They have managed to completely transform health outcomes in the Gudalur Valley, all while generating an impressive revenue stream for the people. Their secret to success: build capacity and trust first. If you can empower someone to take their health into their own hands, and give them the tools to do so, the rest will fall into place. In their eyes, the foundation of global health and surgery is altruism. They emphasize that “Healthcare has no beneficiaries”; if one wishes to truly make a difference, everything you do must be for the greater good of the people you are doing it for. Tune in to hear their incredible story.
    You can learn more about their mission and accomplishments here: https://ashwini.org/new/  Check out their recently launched platform where health professionals can find job opportunities in rural areas in India and make a difference just like them: https://ruralhospitalnetwork.org/. 
    Contact:  instagram: ott_globalsurgery twitter: OFFTHETABLE_POD email: offthetablepod21@gmail.com patreon: https://www.patreon.com/offthetablepodcast
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    1 hr
  • 6: Train, Train, Train! – Dr. Bekele’s Guide to the Improvement of Surgical Care

    6: Train, Train, Train! – Dr. Bekele’s Guide to the Improvement of Surgical Care
    Mar 4 2022
    This episode we welcome the man who wears many hats; Dr. Abebe Bekele, founding Dean of the School of Medicine and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Global Health and Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. Dr. Bekele is a renowned thoracic Surgeon and a Professor of Surgery at Addis Ababa University, School of Medicine in Ethiopia. He is a fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA), the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the University of Washington, as well as the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). He has published innumerable journals, reports, and book chapters and has received international awards and recognition for his monumental contributions to the improvement of surgical care in SSA and worldwide. With Dr. Bekele, the term “many hats” is an overwhelming understatement, as his titles and accomplishments are far too vast to enumerate without composing a comprehensive memoir.
    In addition to his clinical and academic ventures, he has taken on a prominent role as a global surgery advocate while demonstrating his infinite passion for health equity in all of its representations through his work and activism. He is the epitome of a global surgery and surgical education champion, and his proactivity in the promotion of gender equity, sustainable partnerships, and the decolonization of global health shine brightly in this field. This episode sees Dr. Bekele share his experiences and wisdom, beginning with a detailed description of his career path, ambitions, and moving through to his establishment of the School of Medicine at the UGHE. He details the pragmatic solutions that UGHE has adopted in order to tackle issues in gender equity as well as provide training on social justice, human rights, and social determinants of health to their medical students. If one thing is emphasized above all in this episode, it is the importance of establishing resilient and multifarious training programs for medical professionals. He accentuates that clinical training must be centered around district hospitals in order to create well-rounded acute care surgeons. Students may then attend larger urban referral centers for specialized procedures to top off their skillsets once they have mastered treating the most common pathologies that they will encounter first. Dr. Bekele proclaims the importance of the altruistic humanitarian aid that is being offered to address barriers to care in Africa, but emphasizes that this help must come in the form of an equitable and sustainable partnership in order for it to succeed. To facilitate this, the UGHE has designed a model –  The Seven Steps of Sustainable Partnerships. Learn more at https://ughe.org/ 
    Contact:  instagram: ott_globalsurgery twitter: OFFTHETABLE_POD email: offthetablepod21@gmail.com patreon: https://www.patreon.com/offthetablepodcast
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    52 mins
  • 5: Barriers to Care – The Importance of Accessible Knowledge and Training in Low Resource Settings

    5: Barriers to Care – The Importance of Accessible Knowledge and Training in Low Resource Settings
    Jan 28 2022
    We are delighted to be joined by the incredible Dr. Brian Madison, president of South Sudan Orthopaedics and Trauma Society. Dr. Madison is an orthopaedic surgeon with a passion for global surgery. He is a dedicated advocate for the improvement of surgical systems in Africa. Born in Eastern Equatoria, before South Sudan was even recognized as an independent country, he comes from humble beginnings. After medical school in Khartoum, Sudan, Brian returned home to Torit; a no-man’s land of healthcare infrastructures. He loves his country, and describes his province as “paradise”. With passion and drive, he created his own career opportunities. From a surgical residency position in Tanzania to an orthopaedic trauma fellowship in Canada, he acquired the skillset needed to become one of only 11 orthopaedic surgeons in South Sudan.
    He discusses the geographical, socioeconomic, and political barriers to accessing surgical care in South Sudan and provides insightful commentary regarding their current healthcare environment and how it may improve. We discuss the implications of low resources, brain drain, and conflict hindering the progression of South Sudan as a country. He excitingly announces the recent launching of his country’s Orthopaedic Surgery Society, of which he is the president. Their goal is to build a training program for orthopaedic surgery in their country, and partnerships with high-income countries’ academic institutions can help play a supportive role through clinical exchanges and capacity-building in research. Tune in to hear the astute perspective of Dr. Madison regarding the evolution of global surgery and the importance of establishing infrastructure which supports the sharing of knowledge and training.
    Dr. Brian Madison on Twitter: @madisonbrian85 South Sudan Orthopaedics and Trauma Society: https://ssorthotrauma.com
    Contact:  instagram: ott_globalsurgery twitter: OFFTHETABLE_POD email: offthetablepod21@gmail.com patreon: https://www.patreon.com/offthetablepodcast
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    39 mins

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