Hello,
We are excited to keep you apprised of the Global Health effort this past year in the Department of Orthopaedics. Obviously, we have been hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic and have shut down all activity indefinitely. Accordingly, several attendings, residents and fellows missed trips to places such as Sucre, Bolivia; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Antigua, Guatemala; Dominican Republic; and Beijing, China. The good news is that we did not have anyone stranded on an international trip during the pandemic!
Despite this, many things occurred these past two years that we are excited about. We finalized the creation of our Global Interactive Map, which shows everywhere we’ve been and what we are doing. This is located in our UOC lobby and is a great way to keep informed of what is going on. We are pleased that our patients are using it and we believe this is a great way to show any possible donors what we are doing. It certainly had a positive benefit during this year’s residency interview session, as many students now are interested in programs that have a reasonable global health component. We are getting some of the finest students who want to come to Utah partly because of this global health effort, as we are more dedicated and organized for it than manyother orthopaedic residencies. We hope that you will show your friends and keep yourself up-to-date using the map as well.
An organizational trip was made last year to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia where we met friends who will come out to spend time with us when the international travel restrictions are lifted. Similarly, we went to Zacatecas, Mexico in the central plain area where many Salt Lake City residents originated from and where there is a foundation from Salt Lake that helps the community already. Finally, wedid an organizational trip and humanitarian trip to Marrakech, Morocco where our hand therapists worked in a neurologic therapy unit, which is unique to their country. We also met medical doctors in Morocco who would like us to return in the future, whichwe are looking forward to doing.
Our attendings have gone to Ecuador, Uganda, Bhutan and Panama (Shriners Hospital). All of these areas are potential growth areas where larger trips may go in the future. We are proud to share that our fellows and residents went to Cape Town, South Africa; Pune, India; Cochabamba, Bolivia; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Santiago, Chile and all had excellent experiences. Santiago, Chile is another area where residents in orthopaedics there will travel to our department for about a month at a time to directly learn from our attending staff. Once again, all of this is possible because of the help of Aaron and Suzie Hofmann and their professorship. We thank them and look forward to doing bigger and better things in the future when the world becomes safer again. Please stay safe yourselves.
Thank you all for your dedication and involvement in this global health endeavor.
Sincerely,
Dr. Douglas Hutchinson
Chair of Global Health for the Department of Orthopaedics
Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics