My project will focus on Minimally Invasive Gynecology Surgery (MIGS) training in Zimbabwe. My team will be educating local surgeons on various MIGS techniques and how to perform these surgeries in a low resource setting. I will be working with a small team of surgeons to create a formal curriculum, as well as MIGS simulation projects. While in Zimbabwe, we will also perform surgical cases for patients without regular access to MIGS care. Our surgeries will address common gynecological complaints such as, heavy menes, endometriosis and fibroids. These conditions often cause chronic and debilitating pelvic pain for patients every month. This project will also provide education to local physicians, so that they may continue to provide MIGS care to their community.
This project will benefit both the local patient population, as well as the physicians we will be educating. MIGS surgery provides a faster recovery time, less morbidity and reduced surgical complications when compared to traditional open surgical techniques. Our patients will experience the numerous benefits of MIGS surgery for their chronic gynecological pathologies. These pathologies are often taboo in rural patient populations, and at times surgical management is the only definitive treatment for their condition. The local surgeons we will be working with will be able to acquire surgical skills from trained MIGS surgeons that they can use to treat patients and educate colleagues for years to come. This population is significant to our project, as the two directors of the trip were raised in Zimbabwe and continue to have deep personal ties to the community. Additionally, African/Black populations are significantly more likely to suffer from fibroid uteri compared to other demographic groups.
The impact of our project is intended to be long lasting and bidirectional. It is our hope that the MIGS surgical curriculum can be replicated for local surgeons in Zimbabwe. The curriculum can be used to create a sustainable MIGS clinic, thus providing lower morbidity care in low resource settings. Additionally, we are hopeful that by establishing a relationship with local surgeons, we can facilitate them coming to our institution for additional MIGS training.
I am so grateful to the Doximity funding for helping to fund my trip to Zimbabwe. The team was so gracious and responsive when helping me to reschedule my flights last minute, due to closed airspaces in layover countries. I was able to help train medical residents in Harare, Zimbabwe how to perform laparoscopic gynecologic surgery and practice their clinical skills. We were able to impact 15 of the 75 total OB-GYN residents in Zimbabwe with our project! All of the residents were engaged in our curriculum and made rapid improvements in their surgical skills. The residents had extremely positive feedback about the course and requested that we return next year for additional lessons! The training provided during this experience will allow the future patients of these residents to have lower risk and highly effective surgical procedures with surgically competent physicians. This project also allowed me to gain more experience with global health work. I now have a better understanding of low resource health care settings and how to provide care to patients with varying levels of health literacy. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity to participate in this project and learn about the beautiful culture in Zimbabwe. This would have not been possible without the Doximity foundation!
