Surgery and Healing in the Developing World - Dartmouth-Hitchcock

To My Son, the Urologist
Figure 7. Fifty million left homeless in Bangladesh’ worst flood of the century.
• Cultivate a sense of humor.
• Stay on focus. Review your trip objectives (You do have them, right?)
often to make certain you remain on track.
• ‘Walk softly and carry no sticks.’ The career worker stays on long after
your dust has settled. Comport yourself so that in no way will his or her
life be adversely affected.
Doug: What about surgical education in developing countries?
Dad:
For this answer I borrow from material kindly provided by Dr. Catherine
DeVries, pediatric urologist in Augusta, GA and Director of International Volunteers
in Urology.
Apart from local, regional and national surgical training programs, surgical education
may be supplemented by expatriate colleagues. Their efforts can be separated
into several categories.
1. Sponsorship of surgeons in developing nations to meetings and training centers.
This approach involves identifying and supporting promising surgeons
for advanced training. The rationale and hope is that these surgeons
will return home in order to enhance quality medical care in situ.
Regrettably, though, many never return, once having experienced practice
in a substantially more advanced, and lucrative, setting. Subsidizing
surgeons to attend major meetings may reduce incentive to stay outside
the country of origin.
2. Academic affiliations. The International Federation of Surgical Colleges,
through its links to surgical societies of many countries, fosters collegiality
and sharing of resources. University medical centers, also, may have
“sister programs” with counterparts around the globe.
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