Global general pediatric surgery partnership: The UCLA-Mozambique ex-perience

ABSTRACT

There has been increasing recognition of the disparities in surgical care throughout the world. Increasingly, efforts are being made to improve local infrastructure and training of surgeons in low-income settings. The purpose of this study was to review the first 5-years of a global aca-demic pediatric general surgery partnership between ucla and the Eduardo Mondlane university in Maputo, Mozambique. Methods­a mixed-methods approach was utilized to perform an on-going needs assessment. a retrospective review of admission and operative logbooks was per-formed. Partnership activities were summarized. Results­the needs assessment identified sever-al challenges including limited operative time, personnel, equipment, and resources. review of logbooks identified a high frequency of burn admissions and colorectal procedures. partnership activities focused on providing educational resources, on-site proctoring, training opportunities, and research collaboration. Conclusion­this study highlights the spectrum of disease and opera-tive case volume of a referral center for general pediatric surgery in sub-saharan africa, and it provides a context for academic partnership activities to facilitate training and improve the quali-ty of pediatric general surgical care in limited-resource settings.