Projects:

1. The Annual Bethune Round Table on International Surgery (BRT)
This is a unique conference that draws together medical students, residents, surgeons and allied health professionals from across Canada and around the world. The BRT is the first and only international scientific meeting dedicated to the issues of surgical education and research for development. Since it's inception five years ago, the BRT has served to build a Canadian consensus on international surgery, it has stimulated the development of international surgery at other Canadian Universities and it has built up Canada's international profile among surgeons from developing countries. The conference has provided a focus for Canadian surgeons interested in international surgery to come together, present their work, build networks and make connections with surgeons from developing countries. It provides a venue where senior surgeons from developing countries can present their views and articulate their needs. It helps link Canadian medical students and trainees with senior surgeons from both here and abroad, helping to build enthusiasm of the new generation of Canadian doctors.

The Bethune Round table is supported by the Canadian Network for International Surgery and the Canadian International Development Agency.

2. The Ptolemy Project (CIHR funded)
The Ptolemy Project provides free full-text access to the University of Toronto's electronic library to 300 surgeons in East Africa and assesses how they use the information received. Ptolemy is closely linked to the College of Surgeons of East, Central & Southern Africa (COSECSA) and supports a Ptolemy Co-ordinator in the COSECSA offices in Arusha, Tanzania. Through the Ptolemy Project, Dr. B. Ostrow and Professor P. Jani are editing a new "Surgery-in-Africa" Reading Course. Through the Ptolemy Project, we are sponsoring Dr. Miliard Derbew, an Ethiopian general surgeon to spend a year as Visiting Scholar at the Wilson Centre for Research in Education (Supervisor: Professor Niall Byrne), University of Toronto. It is hoped that this pilot project will enable us to find funding to train a cadre of surgical educators for the east African region.

The Ptolemy Project and Surgery in Africa are supported by the Canadian Network for International Surgery and the Canadian International Development Agency.

3. Children's Surgical Hospital, Cambodia (formerly ROSEcharities)
There is a close linkage between the OIS and Children's Surgical Centre (CSC). Canadian surgeons, fellows, residents, medical students, nurses and therapists visit CSC to learn about reconstructive surgery, transfer skills and conduct research. Recent innovations include the creation of an Acid Burn Survivors Support Group, creation and implementation of a burn prevention course in the schools, production of a series of Burn Safety TV messages using traditional Khmer characters to target caregivers and children and a $250 000 fundraising campaign is underway in cooperation with CIBC and the Sunnybrook Foundation aimed at beginning a children's burn centre at CSC.

4. Canadian Association of General Surgeons - CIS
In 1998, at the instigation of Dr. Bob Taylor, CAGS established a new committee called the Liaison Committee for the Advancement of Surgical Services in the Developing World to raise the profile among its membership of the surgical needs in developing countries and to provide a process whereby links can be established between interested members and credible organizations that are working with providers in these countries to improve the provision of surgical care. In 2005 the name was simplified to the CAGS Committee for International Surgery. We are very pleased to announce two new projects that provide Canadian Surgeons with the opportunity to volunteer at St Mary’s Hospital, Lacor in Uganda and the Georgetown Teaching Hospital, University Medical School in Guyana. There is widespread interest among CAGS members and resident members about opportunities to work in International Surgery, but until now it has been difficult to access information about how to go about organizing a volunteer experience abroad.

5. Rui Jin Hospital, Shanghai, China
A partnership between the Rui Jin Hospital Burn Unit in Shanghai and the Ross Tilley Burn Centre in Toronto has lead to the implementation of a burn database in Shanghai. Initial analysis of this data in the summer of 2004 showed a very high incidence of scald burns in the pediatric population. The next stage is to use the findings of this study to design a pediatric burn prevention project in Shanghai. The successful candidate will work closely with surgeons at Rui Jin Hospital Burn unit to design and evaluate a pediatric burn prevention project.