Geneva: WHO

Dr Richard Gosselin, Co-Director of IGOT, and more recently, Tom Penoyar, IGOT Research Associate, have served as volunteers at World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Their work was focused on the WHO Emergency and Essential Surgical Care program (www.who.int/surgery) under the direction of Dr Meena Cherian. This program has similar aims to IGOT in that both seek to improve the quality and availability of vital surgical procedures. EESC has a broader scope, encompassing general surgery, anesthesia and emergency medicine, as well as some basic orthopaedics. Specialist surgeons such as those in IGOT recognize the importance of a strong surgical infrastructure so we have spent time in Geneva learning how to optimize our approach to delivering reliable orthopaedic care in developing countries.

Both Dr Gosselin and Tom are members of the WHO Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care, an international collaboration of Ministries of Health, WHO country offices, local and international organizations and academia. By participating in GIEESC, we maintain our global perspective on the state of surgical care and stay current on how different countries are working to improve it.

The primary research conducted in Geneva involved analysis of surgical care in district hospitals of developing countries. Tom has prepared a manuscript entitled: