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The 250 people who attended last month’s Disparities in Surgical Care Symposium came from all over the world, united by a passion to eliminate disparities in surgical care.
“The discussions sparked, the controversies raised, the passion elicited—change was palpable in the room,” said Selwyn Rogers, MD, MPH, chief of the BWH Division of Trauma, Burn, and Surgical Critical Care and the Center for Surgery and Public Health, which sponsored this symposium. “There was a desire to address disparities in the U.S. and around the world.”
The symposium, held last month at the Seaport World Trade Center, drew more than twice the number of attendees as the first symposium in 2007. The symposium also attracted more surgeons.
“In the 2007 symposium, the majority of speakers were medical doctors, not surgeons,” Kathleen Lively, RN, clinical research nurse in the Center for Surgery and Public Health, said. “This year, many more surgeons were engaged. We also had a number of students from BWH’s Student Success Jobs Program, colleges and medical schools looking for direction in this arena of surgery and public health.”
Previously, it was practically unheard of to combine surgery and public health as a career trajectory. “Times have changed,” Rogers said. “Surgery is no longer just a technical field. We need to determine how to make surgery equitable and to address issues of ethics, access and fairness.”
Rogers cited alarming data showing that all people are not provided the same options and that access to surgery in some places is slim. “In some sub-Saharan countries, there are two surgeons for every 100,000 people,” he said. “How do you address surgeries that are essential in these countries?” he asked, noting that Caesarean-sections and trauma care, including orthopedics, top the list of essential surgeries needed in such countries.
“The first symposium built awareness about disparities,” Rogers said. “Now, we are working on intervening as we continue to document disparities. We hope to create sustained partnerships, transfer knowledge, develop systems and help train others around the world.”