Anaesthesia in Developing Countries course, November 2013
Course report
The rationale for the course The Oxford Anaesthesia in Developing Countries course (ADC) offers focused training over five days for anaesthetists wishing to work in remote and low-‐resourced environments. Established more than thirty years ago in Oxford by Dr. Michael Dobson, and now co-‐directed by Dr. Hilary Edgcombe (Oxford) and Dr Jeanne Frossard (UCLH), the course has thrived ever since on word of mouth and the experience of participants. Now more than ever this type of training is invaluable, in a climate of increased scrutiny and focus on best practice for aid organisations and volunteers from high income countries. In addition, there is increased recognition internationally that the surgical burden of disease in low and middle income countries may have been underrated and even neglected. Initiatives to address surgical provision must address the particular challenges to safe anaesthesia provision with understanding of the differences between practice of anaesthesia in high-‐income versus low-‐income environments. As the ADC course has continued and developed we aim to offer high-‐calibre training to increase the safety of practice of anaesthetists working outside their familiar systems as well as their understanding of issues around aid, short and long-‐term interventions and the local impact of expatriate workers. To this end the location of the course (operated and organised through the University of Oxford) is now in Kampala, Uganda. Collaboration and partnership with local anaesthesia providers and hospitals has developed over the last 5 years and is a unique feature of the course.
The experience of the receiving hospital: panel discussion with Ugandan faculty
Course remit The ADC course trains small groups of delegates from a variety of (usually high-‐income) countries for a period of 5 days. Core topics include the use of equipment designed for low-‐resource conditions, appropriate use of drugs such as ketamine, halothane and ether which are less commonly encountered in high-‐income countries, and typical surgical and medical morbidity of relevance to anaesthetic practice. In addition we dedicate time to some of the hardest aspects of aid / volunteer working including how aid interventions may be undertaken well or badly, the impact of overseas workers on people and systems (led by our Ugandan colleagues), dealing with the psychological and physical stresses on the volunteer and decision-‐making in difficult clinical circumstances. In addition we aim to tailor some parts of the course to the known interests of our participants (who provide this information when booking). The November 2013 course: specifics This course ran between the 4th and 8th November 2013, based at the Makindye Club in Kampala. It was as usual accredited by the Royal College of Anaesthetists for 15 CPD points. We had 17 participants from the UK, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, the US, Canada and Australia. Around half had no prior experience in low-‐income countries since medical school and the majority had plans to engage in some sort of work overseas subsequent to the course.
We were also delighted to have faculty from the UK, the US and Uganda involved this year. Of particular note, the US faculty (Dr G Dubowitz and Dr T Roche) have key involvement with the Global Partners in Anesthesia and Surgery / AAGBI collaboration for training anaesthetists in Uganda. As such they were invaluable both for their insights and expertise and in assisting us to link with a number of the Ugandan anaesthetists as part of the course. We were very grateful for the contributions made by Dr. Arthur Kwizera, Dr Emmanual Ayebale, Dr. Mary Nabukenua, Dr. Susan Anena and Dr. Isabella Epiu, all affiliated with the Dept of Anaesthesia at Mulago Hospital.
Course delegates and faculty
We also welcomed the attendance of two participants and one member of the faculty from the UK International Emergency Trauma Registry, with a view to informing the development of targeted training of anaesthetists affiliated with the UKIETR. This initiative operated by the NGO UK-‐Med in agreement with the Department of Health and Department for International Development seeks to coordinate appropriately trained personnel for response to major international disasters. The programme for the week and faculty information are provided as appendixes to this report. As usual the aim was to break even financially, covering the course costs within the participants’ registration fees. This was achieved and we are grateful to the faculty who all funded their own flights and expenses. The immediate course outcomes were positive; all participants complete feedback forms and were universally happy with the course overall: all would recommend the course to a colleague (and indeed almost all participants had come as the result of personal recommendation) . Highlights included the sessions on oxygen provision, drawover systems, difficult decision-‐making, the experience of receiving hospitals, aid models and ethics and the personal accounts of faculty. In addition the opportunities to visit two contrasting local hospitals and dialogue with local anaesthetists, observing both clinical practice and some of the challenges of receiving aid were highly valued. Thanks and acknowledgements This course would not be possible without the dedicated assistance of a large number of people. In particular thanks are due for the ongoing support of the Oxford University Hospitals, the Anaesthetic Department in Oxford and the Nuffield Division of Anaesthetics administrative staff. The Makindye Club once again provided stand-‐out quality accommodation, food, conference facilities and a warm welcome. Our regular faculty are the bedrock for the course; they are able to teach on a wide variety of subjects with excellence and continually review and maintain a high quality of training. As always, special acknowledgement is due to Dr. Sarah Hodges who coordinates the administration in Kampala in addition to adding the voice of long-‐term experience which is always immensely valued by delegates.
Future developments We expect to continue offering and developing training on the Oxford ADC course for as long as it is required. The next course is planned for October / November 2014 and we hope to be able to expand numbers somewhat with additional off-‐site accommodation nearby. However as demand continues to be very high, we are delighted that there are three other centres world-‐wide which offer similar training, in North America, Australia (five-‐day “Real World Anaesthesia” course and Bristol (the one day “Developing World Anaesthesia” course). Collaboration across these centres has always been of great benefit and we hope it will continue in the years to come. A new initiative this year is the fuller evaluation of the ADC course. Although immediate feedback, recommendations, continued demand and word of mouth are all positive, we hope to demonstrate the outcomes of this training for international medical volunteers on a more robust basis. To this end, this year’s course delegates have been invited to participate in a novel evaluation of long-‐term course outcomes with a combination of semi-‐structured interviews and on-‐line surveys to assess the effectiveness of this training in the longer-‐term. We remain excited about the opportunity to offer an excellent training course for anaesthetists crossing cultures and borders to work in unfamiliar environments. It is our hope that this kind of training which recognises and addresses the challenges faced by both volunteers and hosts at organisational and individual levels will become the norm for those involved in funding, supporting and actually undertaking medical aid. Dr Hilary Edgcombe (Course Co-‐Director and organiser) Dr Jeanne Frossard (Course Co-‐Director)
Appendix 1: programme Anaesthesia in Developing countries November 2013 Mon 0830 HE Welcome 0900 JF/SH Introduction: Anaesthesia around the world and in Uganda 0930 MD Resources I: Oxygen sources around the world 1015 Coffee 1045 JF Resources II: Using ketamine wisely 1130 HE Clinical practice: Obstetric anaesthesia 1230 SH Hospital visits briefing 1300 Lunch 1400 HE Where there’s no machine: drawover circuits and vaporisers (also MD, RN, SH, JF) 1600 Tea 1630 JF Clinical practice: Paediatric anaesthesia 1730 RN Travelogue: tales of an engineer Tues 0830 SH/GD Hospital visits I 1300 Lunch 1400 MD Where there is a machine: drawover machines 1430 JF Clinical practice: Trauma and Primary Trauma Care 1530 MD Resources III: Halothane need-‐to-‐knows 1600 Tea 1630 HE Clinical practice: Tropical diseases and anaesthesia 1715 JF Hospital visits debrief 1730 JF Travelogue Weds 0830 SH/GD Hospital visits II 1300 Lunch 1400 HE Clinical practice: Difficult decision-‐making scenarios (also MD, JF, SH) 1600 Tea 1630 HE Your health I: physical wellbeing 1700 RC Travelogue: MSF Thurs 0830 TR Aid models and ethics 0915 EA/SH/panel The receiving hospital’s experience 1000 RN Resources IV: electrical and gas safety 1045 Coffee 1115 RC Your health II: psychological wellbeing 1230 JF/SH Procurement, donations and storage 1300 Lunch 1400 Faculty Workshop: maintaining, cleaning and sterilising equipment 1600 Tea Optional craft centre visit Evening Course meal
Fri 0900 SH Clinical practice: Airway management 0945 HE Teaching and training overseas 1030 Coffee 1100 RN New technologies for remote areas 1145 Guest lecture 1300 Lunch 1400 JF Preparing to go: practicalities and considerations (also all faculty) 1530 HE Course close, certificates, MCQs
Appendix 2: faculty biographies Dr Mike Dobson (Oxford, UK) Dr Mike Dobson first got interested in the third world as a medical student in Nepal, whither he returned mid-‐training to work as a staff anaesthetist at a busy mission hospital. Subsequently he has taught in over 25 countries in Africa and Asia. He started this course in Oxford in 1981, directing it until 2009, and says that those attending the course have taught him most of what he knows... He has been anaesthetic advisor to the World Health Organisation for 20 years, and other interests include Primary Trauma Care and TALC (Teaching Aids at Low Cost). Dr Gerald Dubowitz (USA) Dr Gerald Dubowitz is an Assistant Professor in Anaesthesia based in San Francisco, USA. He is a founder of the Global Partners in Anesthesia and Surgery (GPAS) programme and director of the Global Health Program at UCSF. His experience includes work in Nepal, the South Pacific and Africa, with particular links in Uganda. Dr Hilary Edgcombe (Oxford, UK) Dr Hilary Edgcombe is a consultant anaesthetist at Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford where her practice includes anaesthesis for transplant and trauma surgery. She has clinical and teaching experience in a number of countries in sub-‐Saharan Africa, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Sierra Leone and South Africa. She is Course Director together with Dr Jeanne Frossard for the well-‐established course, "Anaesthesia in Developing Countries" based in Oxford and Uganda, now in its thirty-‐first year. This course aims to train and equip anaesthetists from developed world countries who plan to work and / or teach in developing world environments, in order to maximise their usefulness in such endeavours. Dr Jeanne Frossard (UCLH, UK) Dr Jeanne Frossard is a consultant anaesthetist at UCLH NHS trust in London and has been involved in this course for eleven years, as well as lecturing on the similar global outreach course in Canada and on clinical officer refresher courses in Rwanda and Mozambique. She is especially interested in trauma management and has been on the faculties setting up Primary Trauma Care in Rwanda, MSF Belgium, China, Iraq , Jordan , the West Bank and the Gaza strip. She has worked twice in Sarajevo during the siege with an NGO called HAMD, twice with the ICRC in a war surgery hospital on the Kenyan/ Sudanese border and also with MSF in Afghanistan. Dr Sarah Hodges (Kampala, Uganda) Born in India and brought up in South East Asia and France, Dr Sarah Hodges wanted to study medicine from a very early age and was challenged by witnessing the inequalities while growing up in Asia. She started training in anaesthetics before moving to Uganda with her husband, Andrew Hodges (a surgeon) to work with CMS, an Anglican mission organization in Kagando Hospital, a Church of Uganda hospital in the West of Uganda. Following a brief return to the UK during which she completed anaesthetic training, she returned to Uganda in December 2004. Since then she has been involved in a wide variety clinical and teaching endeavours at a variety of hospitals in Kampala and a Associate Director
for this course. She was recently awarded the Pask Certificate of Honour by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. Dr Amy Hughes (Manchester, UK) Dr Amy Hughes is an Emergency Medicine registrar with an established interest in expedition and remote medicine. She has experience in Madagascar, Belize, Sri Lanka and a current research interest in the infrastructure of foreign medical teams working in disaster settings. She is also involved with the UK International Emergency Trauma Register. Mr Robert Neighbour (Diamedica, UK) A former aeronautical engineer, Robert Neighbour now heads a medical equipment company specialising in the needs of the developing world. Their anaesthetic machines are based on teaming oxygen concentrators with draw-‐over gas delivery systems. He is a tireless supporter of anaesthetists in the developing world. Dr. Tony Roche (USA) Dr Tony Roche is an Associate Professor of Anesthesia at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He is involved with the GPAS collaboration and has been collaborating for several years with the Department of Anaesthesia at Mulago Hospital, Uganda. He is particularly involved in research and education linked with obstetric and regional anaesthesia.