taking a multidisciplinary approach to ensuring that every person has access to safe, timely, and affordable surgical care when they need it.
What we did:
In 2015, I was a senior consultant in the global health practice of Dalberg, where my projects often included conducting research and analysis for major foundations to guide their grantmaking strategies. While exploring the area of universal access to safe, affordable surgical care with the GE Foundation, we identified a need for multidisciplinary organizations to collaborate to improve not just one piece of the puzzle, like electricity for hospitals or technical skills for surgeons, but instead transform entire hospitals by investing in leadership by the surgical teams at those facilities. This research became Safe Surgery 2020 – a multi-component program to explore innovative models for expanding safe surgical care globally.
I first joined the Safe Surgery 2020 team during its design research phase, and thereafter agreed to step into a program manager role for the first year of implementation. In these capacities, I played a number of roles – from coordinating and conducting research in Ethiopia and Tanzania, to collaborating with designers to develop the initiative’s brand and marketing, to representing the initiative in government meetings, conferences, and partnership meetings around the world. I also developed and coordinated a 2-day strategy summit that allowed for reflection, relationship-building, and planning among core partners. At the end of my term, I managed the recruitment, interview, and on-boarding process for my successor.
In the process, I learned a tremendous amount about the opportunities and challenges of getting things done in global health –from building durable relationships with multidisciplinary partners who have different approaches and organizational cultures, to the limits of global health infrastructure to truly centering the leadership of those closest to solutions – surgical teams and patients themselves.
What happened next:
Over the course of the 5-year initiative, Safe Surgery 2020 reported having implemented programs in 58 health facilities in 3 countries, trained over 2,900 healthcare workers (in areas including leadership, patient safety, and clinical skills), and launched 2 oxygen plants to improve oxygen availability at 40 medical facilities. Some of our partner hospitals in Ethiopia increased their surgical volume by over 50%, reduced surgical mortality by 1/3, and reduced referrals by 78%. In Tanzania, surgical safety checklist use increased by 44%.
Why it matters:
Billions of people worldwide cannot access surgical care when they need it. What drew me to this work was learning how hospitals who could handle three types of common procedures – C-section, open fractures, and laparotomies – could have a transformative impact on the health and wellbeing of their communities. As someone whose life has twice been saved by laparotomy/laparoscopy, this issue hits home for me personally. It was also learning that, while access to equipment and tools is crucial, so is leadership, teamwork, and sound processes to ensure patient safety.
Year: 2016-2017
Location: Ethiopia, Tanzania
My role: Project management, program design, design research
Collaborators: During my time with the initiative, I coordinated across a wide variety of collaborators including Dalberg (my employer at the time), Jhpiego, Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, the G4 Alliance, Assist International, and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. You can find the full list of initiative partners on the Safe Surgery 2020 website.