PGSSC (Spring 2022)

Project Background

Organizational Background: The Program on Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a collaborative effort between the Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard Medical School/ Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Partners In Health (PIH).  This organization emerged from work of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, led by Dr. John Meara at Harvard Medical School (and a 1986 ND graduate).  PGSSC’s objective is to advocate for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed. Their  strategy is two-fold:

Global Surgical Systems Strengthening through Research, Advocacy, and Implementation Science, using the Frameworks developed as part of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.       

Developing Leaders in Global Surgical and Health Systems through Research, Advocacy, and Care Delivery.  

PGSSC research focuses on surgical and health systems strengthening that is measurable, transparent, and locally-driven.

Definition of Opportunity

The PGSSC has worked across the globe with governments to develop and implement National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plans (NSOAPs) to expand access to surgery particular for poor and rural communities. The Government of Ecuador (and specifically the country’s vice president, a neurosurgeon) has reached out to explore PGSSC working collaboratively with the MInistry of Health and other public officials in Ecuador to develop an NSOAP for Ecuador. An important first step of the process is to identify and map key health sector stakeholders who will take part in consultations to understand the context and build support for the NSOAP process.

Definition of Success

It will be very important to get the input of the scholars as early and often as possible. Dr. Juliana is very supportive of this and will help you set up those meetings either through zoom or Whatsapp. 

1. The RRF scholars will share their stories and in the process work with the ND students to create a learning platform.

Meet the Team

Final Deliverable

Expanding Global Surgery as Part of the Global Health Agenda - Program of Global Surgery and Social Change, Philippines, (Fall 2019)

Organizational Background:

The Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) is a collaborative effort between the Harvard teaching hospitals, Harvard Medical School/ Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Partners In Health (PIH). This organization emerges out of work of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, that was led by Dr. John Meara at Harvard Medical School (and a 1986 ND graduate). PGSSC’s objective is to advocate for Universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed. The strategy is two-fold: 1) Global Surgical Systems Strengthening through Research, Advocacy, and Implementation Science, using the Frameworks developed as part of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, and 2) Developing Leaders in Global Surgical and Health Systems through Research, Advocacy, and Care Delivery. PGSSC's research focuses on surgical and health systems strengthening that is measurable, transparent, and locally-driven. Click here for the Strategic Plan that focuses on implementation science, research, advocacy, and training leaders.

The Opportunity:

The World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) has developed a strategic health plan for the region. At the recent World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Regional Director for WPRO indicated his interest to integrate surgery into the regional health plan, and specifically promote the National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plan (NSOAP) model for countries of the WPRO region, potentially including Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam and/or Mongolia.

Initial Steps:

One of the initial steps in the development of NSOAPs is a baseline analysis of a country’s current surgical capacity. Review the Tanzanian background research document that created a baseline for the Tanzania NSOAP as a first step to moving forward on the NSOAP process in the WPRO.

Identify with the client the most relevant countries to research.

Conduct a systematic review of academic literature and government policy documents, including form the Ministry of Health websites, to build a baseline on access to and the state of surgery in each of the selected countries.

What does success look like?

The development of research to support a set of future scenarios or pathways that PGSSC might use for potential partnerships with the WHO regional office to support the development of surgical policy, as well as the strategic use of their experience, expertise, and capacity to maximize their organization’s impact on global surgery goals.

Meet the Team: