This project is an annual surgical and educational mission to Malindi, Kenya, led by the Vanderbilt Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery under the guidance of Dr. James Netterville. This mission serves a dual purpose: to deliver high-quality care to patients with head and neck ailments, and to continue to build sustainable surgical treatment through training of the next generation of local surgeons and clinical practitioners. During this trip, we will actively engage in surgical education alongside experienced local attending surgeons to train medical students, residents, fellows, and practitioners from Kenya and surrounding nations.
Our clinical focus is on head and neck conditions that often present at advanced stages due to lack of accessible specialty care in Malindi. In collaboration with long-standing local partners, our team, which includes surgeons, anesthesia providers, and nursing staff, plans to perform over 60 major surgical operations and a similar number of minor procedures under local anesthesia. My role as a head and neck fellow will support both the clinical and educational aspects of this mission. I will be involved the workup and surgical decision-making with patients, assist in procedures, and engage trainees to both understand their needs and working environment and provide education. By coupling direct patient care with structured teaching, the planned mission will enhance local care to endure beyond our time there. Additionally, we will build upon prior missions to further incorporate ultrasound technology into the regular clinical practice. Together with our Kenyan colleagues, our mission aims to provide quality care with cultural competency closer to home, improve access to treatment, and reduce the financial and emotional burden on patients and their families, all while supporting the local care team to expand their capacity providing advanced care across the region.
The primary beneficiaries are patients in the surrounding areas near Malindi, Kenya. Our team has been working with Kenyan surgeons and patients for over 30 years, primarily based in Kijabe; however, despite great strides in head and neck care in the country over this time, Malindi has remained critically underserved. As such, these patients often present with advanced pathologies of the head and neck, thyroid and salivary glands.
Equally important and critically involved in the care of these patients, local surgeons and trainees will benefit through our educational efforts and skills transference. This focus is vital as it empowers local providers to continue delivering high-quality surgical care within the local healthcare infrastructure with these advanced skills year-round. It has long been a part of our mission to not only address surgical volume and complexity, but build a workforce that has the skills to care for these patients beyond our time spent in-country. It is for this reason that we have continued working with this group in Malindi, Kenya for 8 years, building relationships that allow for communication beyond our time on this trip. Targeting these populations addresses both urgent clinical needs and long-term sustainability, making this a meaningful and enduring investment in healthcare.
Our impact will extend well beyond the trip itself. In the short-term, patients will receive high-quality specialty care close to home, and local trainees will enhance their surgical skillset through hands-on teaching and mentorship. Beyond the immediate services we provide, we aim to continue supporting improvements in clinical practice by integrating sustainable protocols for patient selection and ultrasound use into local workflows. Most importantly, we seek to prioritize the education of the Kenyan team in order for the quality of care to remain standardized after our departure.
The team has had great success with this relationship over the past 8 years with plans for continued growth. In addition to clinical skill acquisition, we have broadened our impact with the publication of multiple articles to globally educate the academic community from these experiences. This year, we plan to continue these efforts with initiatives to enhance patient selection in the clinic, as well as anesthesia efforts to improve care postoperatively.
Finally, it is our opinion that the mission leaves a lasting impact on our US team, as participants return with a deeper understanding of cultural humility, resource-appropriate medical care, and the importance of sustainable partnerships. These are lessons that are carried into our own practices and future teaching. Many past participants have gone on to incorporate global health into their careers, allowing the mission to have a sustained ripple effect on surgical education, collaborative research, and the global exchange of knowledge.
During this two-week surgical camp in Malindi, Kenya, our team cared for over 200 patients, and provided complex surgical care to over 60 patients with advanced head and neck pathologies in an effort to fulfill both a service and educational mission. Alongside more than 15 Kenyan physicians, ranging from resident trainees to faculty, we worked together to expand the education of all team members, US and Kenyan alike.
