Global Surgery Pro–Con Debate: A Pathway to Bilateral Academic Success or the Bold New Face of Colonialism?

Alyssa Scheiner; Jennifer L. Rickard; Benedict Nwomeh; Randeep S. Jawa; Enrique Ginzburg; Tamara N. Fitzgerald; Anthony Charles; Abebe Bekele

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2020.01.032

Global Surgery Pro–Con Debate: A Pathway to Bilateral Academic Success or the Bold New Face of Colonialism?

Alyssa Scheiner, Jennifer L. Rickard, Benedict Nwomeh, Randeep S. Jawa, Enrique Ginzburg, Tamara N. Fitzgerald, Anthony Charles, Abebe Bekele

Surgery

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Global surgery, especially academic global surgery, is of tremendous interest to many surgeons. Classically, it entails personnel from high-income countries going to low- and middle-income countries and engaging in educational activities as well as procedures. Academic medical personnel have included students, residents, and attendings. The pervasive notion is that this is a win–win situation for the volunteers and the hosts, that is, a pathway to bilateral academic success. However, a critical examination demonstrates that it can easily become the bold new face of colonialism of a low- and middle-income country by a high-income country.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	272-280
Number of pages	9
Journal	Journal of Surgical Research
Volume	252
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.01.032
State	Published - Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
At this juncture, it is important to mention that surgeons from LMICs play a very important role as teachers and mentors not only to their own trainees but also to trainees from HIC institutions. In fact, this is how the true bilateral nature of partnerships is reflected. Such mentorship helps trainees from HICs acquire the surgical and research skills relevant to developing countries that HIC trainees are not used to (or cannot get access to in their HIC setting). Surgeons from LMIC institutions can provide structured support and assessment to the HIC trainees to the extent that some training programs in the United States have already started recognizing LMIC attachments as integral part of the training. As an example, one of the coauthors of this article served as a mentor to surgical residents from HIC setting between 2016 and 2019 to the LMIC setting. As another example, faculty at the University for Global Health Equity, an LMIC partner for the HBNU Fogarty fellowship, will be the mentors for US-based fellowship applicants interested in Surgery in Rwanda.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020

Keywords

Colonialism
Education
Global surgery
Research

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Global Surgery Pro–Con Debate: A Pathway to Bilateral Academic Success or the Bold New Face of Colonialism?",

abstract = "Global surgery, especially academic global surgery, is of tremendous interest to many surgeons. Classically, it entails personnel from high-income countries going to low- and middle-income countries and engaging in educational activities as well as procedures. Academic medical personnel have included students, residents, and attendings. The pervasive notion is that this is a win–win situation for the volunteers and the hosts, that is, a pathway to bilateral academic success. However, a critical examination demonstrates that it can easily become the bold new face of colonialism of a low- and middle-income country by a high-income country.",

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Global Surgery Pro–Con Debate: A Pathway to Bilateral Academic Success or the Bold New Face of Colonialism?

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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