The deadline for submitting abstracts for presentations at the Center for Global Surgery’s first nationwide conference, Extreme Affordability: Innovative Solutions for Surgical Care, has been extended to March 5, 2012, to accommodate continued interest from presenters. Registration for the conference continues as well.
Find out more at http://medicine.utah.edu/globalsurgeryconference/email/globalconference_email.html.
The conference, which will be held March 22-23, in Salt Lake City, Utah, is sponsored by the newly established Center for Global Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Catherine deVries, MD, director of the Center for Global Surgery, is also founder and president of IVUmed, a non-profit organization I work with as a volunteer surgeon, teacher, and mentor, and as a member of the board of directors. VISTA Staffing has been a long-time supporter of IVUmed, and VISTA’s executive vice president, Katie Hoffman Abby, also serves on our board of directors.
Presentations at the conference will focus on innovations for providing globally sustainable, affordable surgery. Course topics that have already been accepted include:
- The Surgical Ecosystem
- The Need: Essential Surgery
- Measuring Cost
- Conceptualizing Sustainability
- BioDesign: Engineering for Extreme Affordability
- Surgery for Low Resource Environments
- Supply and Demand: What do we want? What do we need?
- From Entrepreneurship to Global Health
- Programs That Work: From the Himalayas to Africa, From Mongolia to Utah
Keynoters address disruptive innovation and hands-on experience
“While the need is clearly greatest in resource-poor countries and in rural areas, ‘disruptive’ innovations will ultimately reduce the cost of surgery for everyone, everywhere,” says Catherine. “That’s why we are especially excited to have Clayton Christensen, MBA, Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Prescription, delivering one keynote address.” Christensen is a thought leader in the area of disruptive innovation, particularly as it relates to the economics of less-developed countries.
This keynote address is presented by the Intermountain Healthcare Healthy Dialogues Lecture Series.
A second keynote address will be given by Geoffrey Tabin, MD, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, director of the Division of International Ophthalmology at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah, and founder of The Himalayan Cataract Program. Co-founded by Dr. Tabin and Sanduk Ruit, MD, The Himalayan Cataract Program provides life-altering cataract surgery for only $20 US to the neediest patients in the world’s most remote places.
Additional conference faculty members are drawn from ministries of health, the International Finance Corporation, entrepreneurs, bioengineers, specialists in public health, anthropologists and educators, and surgeons. Members of the surgical community, students, and the broader academic, policy, business, engineering, and general communities are encouraged to attend.
Visit the conference website to register, submit an abstract, or learn more:
http://medicine.utah.edu/globalsurgeryconference/email/globalconference_email.html.
