Team ALL-SAFE, based in Ethiopia with members in Cameroon, Kenya, and the United States, building surgical self-training modules for laparoscopic skills, has been selected as the GRAND PRIZE winner of $700,000 (USD).
Ectopic pregnancy is the leading cause of maternal death, and a significant contributor to infertility in women. Women in sub-Saharan Africa have an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, with little or no access to minimally invasive, laparoscopic interventions.
ALL-SAFE started the Challenge with a focus on the laparoscopic treatment for ectopic pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa and expanded to include appendectomy. As with many hospitals in the region, donated equipment lay fallow in operating rooms due to the lack of properly training surgeons to use them.
“Some patients have already benefited from laparoscopic surgery because of our training,” says Dr Grace Kim, co-lead for the ALL-SAFE team and clinical associate professor of surgery at University of Michigan Health. It is an amazing privilege to be able to innovate on behalf of our patients so that safe surgery will be available to all who need it around the world.”
Team Tibial Fracture Fixation (TFF), based in Nigeria, has won the runner-up award of $300,000 to continue their work building modules using 3D printing to teach essential fracture management.
The runner-up team, TFF, uses 3D printed bone models to teach non-orthopedic specialists open fracture fixation techniques and ultrasound diagnosis of pediatric fractures.
“Being able to train medical officers and non-orthopedic surgeons is a game-changer,” says Dr Habila Umaru, team co-lead for Tibial Fracture Fixation and associate professor of surgery at National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria. “These funds will support our clinical outcomes research so clinicians can adopt our modules for their practice.”
SELF: Surgical Education Learners Forum is an exciting spin-off building on the success of the Global Surgical Training Challenge. It will include partnering with health facilities to continue the clinical validation of new training modules, as well as providing grants to innovators to develop self-administered training modules that teach surgical skills.
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