Having been active in global health for over a decade I have witnessed and experienced many alterations of plans, and many episodes of project failure. Most have been easily attributable to single causes e.g. an individual’s incompetence, a lapsed grant, or a political coup. However, a recent collaborative failure in which I was involved was … Continue reading Consortium of Universities for Global Health
Tag: advice
Adaptability
Extreme Affordability Conference 2015
© 2014 The University of UtahSave the Date!University of UtahCenter for Global Surgery Extreme Affordability Conference: Collaborations for Surgical CareLocation: Rice Eccles Stadium,Salt Lake City,UtahWhen: April 10th & 11th, 2015Registration and Call for Abstracts will be open soon.@UUCGS (and others) will be tweeting with #ExAff(If you missed the talks from the 2013 conference, here they … Continue reading Extreme Affordability Conference 2015
Failure
I co-direct the "Public Health and Surgery" course here at the University of Utah. This week in class we were discussing 'failure'. We heard from colleagues who had experienced program collapse, we watched David Damberger's talk on "Learning From Failure", and we had a nice chat about how and why projects 'fail'.As I was listening … Continue reading Failure
Talking to people
I am honored to have been asked to speak at UT Southwestern's 3rd Annual Global Health Symposium on February 8&9 2014.As you can see, the topic is "Transformative Global Health: Impact and Accountability", which will make for a wide-ranging and engaging couple of days. For example, I'm going to be talking about the role of … Continue reading Talking to people
Tweets from "Updates in Anesthesia" course.
We had a very successful "Annual Updates in Anesthesia" course (our 9th) in Kumasi, Ghana. The organizers (as always) did a superb job, and the 250+ attendees were engaged, enthusiastic and stimulating.Below are some tweet highlights from the course:Prof. Yaw Adu Sarkodie - "Pain is the most common reason for attendance at our hospitals" #ChronicPain— IAEF … Continue reading Tweets from "Updates in Anesthesia" course.
Student humanitarian aid?
Photo courtesy of Doctor of RecordHere is a question: do medical student trips to developing nations do any good?Although this has been on my mind for some time, it was brought into focus by an article by Crystal Hayling from The Center for Effective Philanthropy (I actually read it on Saundra Schimmelpfennig's blog Good Intentions Are Not … Continue reading Student humanitarian aid?
"What makes a new NGO succeed?"
Alanna Shaikh discusses "What makes a new NGO succeed?" on Blood and Milk.Well, it looks like our group has a few of these things right:We are, indeed, highly targeted - anesthesia education is pretty niche. Although we're happy to teach non-anesthesia providers (last year in Kintampo, Ghana we taught trauma management and chronic pain management to … Continue reading "What makes a new NGO succeed?"
Travel tips
As part of my international anesthesia education work I have found myself in some interesting and out-of-the-way places. Consequently I have picked up some tips. I figured this was a good place to share them. As I add more I'll bump this post. On these trips there is often much equipment to take. Consequently, personal luggage … Continue reading Travel tips
Books
For anyone interested in 3rd world aid (medical or otherwise), the following are a great resource. Granted, they are largely of one mind regarding the big picture, but it's hard to argue with people of their experience.As I find them, I will post additional books of interest on the 'Global Health / Surgery Books' page.The … Continue reading Books
Mark's Blog 