Center for Global Surgery Leads Efforts to Establish Academic Standards in New Field
The Center for Global Surgery at University of Utah Health, the oldest center of its kind in the nation with a rich history of advocating for safe surgical care, spearheaded an initiative to develop new academic global surgery competencies.
The Center, directed by Sudha Jayaraman, MD, MSc, FACS, led a team of 62 experts from 22 different countries to establish the first set of universally accepted competencies on the fundamentals of global surgery, a rapidly evolving discipline dedicated to enhancing access to safe and affordable surgical care worldwide. After two years of work, the team shared their initial findings in July and then released their publication "Academic Global Surgical Competencies: A Modified Delphi Consensus Study" in PLOS Global Public Health in September.
Jayaraman, leading the team of surgery and anesthesia experts worldwide, established a consensus on educational standards in this field, marking the first large-scale endeavor to define academic global surgery and outline its core content areas. The collaboration includes representatives from institutions and organizations around the world, including American College of Surgeons, College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa, and Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery, among others.
Jayaraman and her colleagues have advocated for a new medical field, academic global surgery, to educate and train the next generation in addressing global surgical needs.
“A significant portion of the world's population lacks access to affordable and high-quality surgical care, leading to daily loss of life from treatable conditions,” Jayaraman said. “These fundamentals will empower clinicians, policymakers, and advocates worldwide to understand these needs and devise innovative solutions that can enhance access to affordable and high-quality surgical care globally."
The next step is for educational institutions worldwide to use these standards to develop foundational curricula in academic global surgery. The Center is launching an “Introduction to Academic Global Surgery” program based on this project consisting of two courses – a novice and an advanced course. It aims to share the program worldwide, and become a training hub for surgeons and perioperative staff interested in working in low-resource environments.
The center’s innovative work in academic global surgery, combined with this milestone project, promises to bring transformative change to the field, making safe surgical care accessible to all, regardless of location or circumstances.