The Global Surgery Unit began its relationship with Rwanda through the creation on the National Hub at the University of Rwanda, Kigali. The development of the national programme has resulted in the orchestration of several surgical trials carried out between 12 spokes across Rwanda, in addition to the primary Hub location in Kigali.

The Rwanda Hub resides over the recruiting, training, and management of the spoke hospitals. Furthermore, the Hub encourages and involves local surgeons, medical students, public bodies and community, in the promotion of quality surgical care and access in Rwanda.

The NIHR GSU hub in Nigeria is located at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos/Lagos University Teaching Hospital (CMUL/LUTH).

The University of Lagos is a leading Nigerian institution, dedicated to quality teaching, learning, research, and community service. The University records outstanding research breakthroughs as her research culture is fostered through supports for research collaborations, conferences, symposiums, etc. The University is also committed to the healthy living of the populace through involvement in various health researches such as that of GlobalSurg in improving the surgical outcomes of patients. With the high number of deaths due to very limited access to quality health care in Nigeria, and the common knowledge of post-surgery complications responsible for a large proportion of morbidity and mortality; the importance of the GlobalSurg research in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized.

The Nigeria Hub is led by Prof. Adesoji Ademuyiwa, a Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine University of Lagos, and Head of Paediatric Surgery Unit, Lagos University Teaching Hospital. He is being assisted by Prof. Adewale Adisa of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), a Professor of Surgery at College of Health Sviences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State.  The Hub administration is overseen by Emmanuel Williams, the National Hub Manager. He is responsible for the day to day running of the hub and delivers support to the spoke hospitals within Nigeria. He is supported by Adeola Orowale who is also the National Finance Officer.

The Hub’s Senior Research Nurse and Project Officer, Chinelo Mgbemena, supports the research projects in Nigeria. She is assisted by Moyosoluwa Ojo, the Research Nurse/Community Engagement and Involvement (CEI) Officer. Christianah Oyegbola, the National Data Manager, manages the research data of the hub and spoke hospitals.

The Nigeria Hub is currently supporting 26 spoke hospitals from Colleges of Medicine, Teaching Hospitals, District Hospitals, and Federal Medical Centres across Nigeria.

You can visit the official Nigeria Hub national website here.

The NIHR GSU centre in Mexico is located at Hospital Español de Veracruz in Veracruz, a Mexican port city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The centre is conducting and coordinating research projects focused on improving access and quality of surgical care.

Staff Involved with the Mexico Hub

Tamale Teaching Hospital is the tertiary referral centre for the Northern part of Ghana. It serves the five northern regions of Ghana (Northern Region, Savanah Region, North East Region, Upper East Region, and Upper West Region) with a total population of 5,203,838. The School of Medicine, University for Development Studies, and Tamale Teaching Hospital are sited in the Tamale metropolis. The metropolis has an estimated population of 612,000.

The northern regions of Ghana have 23% urban with the rest of the population in scattered rural communities. The poverty incidence amongst these regions of Northern Ghana is high. Most of the districts in the northern part of Ghana have poverty incidence higher than the national average. Healthcare in Northern Ghana as compared to the rest of the country is deprived. Inadequate health professionals coupled with poor health infrastructure has deprived the northern sector of needed healthcare.

Establishing the NIHR-Global Surgery Unit, Ghana Hub in Tamale comes to add up to strengthening the healthcare infrastructure in northern Ghana. In a unique way, the north which is seen as deprived in many ways is a lead in networking the entire nation in surgical research.

STAFF AT THE HOSPITAL INCLUDE:

1 Prof. Stephen Tabiri Hub Director

2 Prof. Francis A. Abantanga FDA Monitor

3 Dr. Napoleon Bellua Sam Deputy Director

4 Dr. Theophilus Adeso Deputy Director

5 Bernard Ofori Appiah Hub Manager

6 Collins Kyeremeh Research Nurse

7 Prince Owusu Yeboah CEI Coordinator

8 Saba Abdul-Hafiz Data Manager

9 Daniel Kwesi Acquah Finance Officer

The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery is led by the University of Birmingham which provides overall oversight in relation to the Unit strategy, infrastructure and delivery, research and finance.

The University of Birmingham:

• has established fully operational surgical research hubs and their corresponding spoke networks in seven countries across three continents: Mexico, India, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa and Benin. All these research partners are participating in the Unit’s studies which include multi-centre randomised controlled trials, cohort studies and snap-shot audits of various aspects of surgical care.

• provides clinical and research management oversight and training for the development and implementation of the studies. The GSU team at the University seeks to empower partners to design and deliver the clinical research needed to improve surgical outcomes for their own patients within their local contexts.

• facilitates the Unit’s annual research prioritisation process which brings together partners from across the international GSU network to prioritise areas for ongoing research. This ensures that the Unit’s work continuously responds to emerging challenges that are relevant at the global and local level.

• leads the Unit’s work in the key focus areas of Health Economics, Community Engagement and Involvement, and Health Service Delivery, and in the development of global clinical guidelines.

• is the secretariat for the GSU Policy and Implementation Committee which seeks to translate the Unit’s evidence based recommendations into national and international policy change.

Edinburgh University is a principle partner along with the University of Birmingham in the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery. We provide leadership and infrastructure for the unit’s data-driven projects and educational activities.

We are currently leading the GlobalSurg 3 international cohort study and the CRANE trial, as well as supporting various smaller pump priming studies in partner hub countries.

The NIHR Unit on Global Surgery is offering fully funded scholarships for students in hub countries to undertake post-graduate training in research skills by joining an online distance learning Masters degree at the University of Edinburgh. The Global Surgery Unit’s Education and Training Committee is administering this process. For further information about the degree courses available please visit the Edinburgh Surgery Online page by clicking here. Interested candidates should contact their local hub lead in the first instance.

The NIHR Unit on Global Surgery also has it’s own online education platform where you’ll find project specific training and resources, as well as open access  training modules in areas such as health economics and research skills. Click here to find these.

The India hub is situated in Ludhiana Punjab and is responsible for conducting research projects with its focus areas being surgical site infection & cancer. Beyond that the hub has been involved in diverse areas of surgical research including health economics, rural surgery, tuberculosis etc.

The hub has started developing India centric research projects for the for possible collaboration with other hub countries and beyond. These new studies are being developed from the GlobalSurg India Data Centre at Ludhiana. The data centre is also involved in many aspects of training and education in Global Surgery research and service delivery.

The India team is now preparing to role out its rural based Community Engagement Initiative.

An exciting prospect of the India hub is now the development of a Rural Surgery Research hub which will be based at a remote hospital which will give an impetus to rural surgery research. 

The India hub leads and coordinates research at 101 Indian hospitals which include clinical trials at 25 hospitals and cohort studies at 76 hospitals across India. Our partner hospitals include large urban hospitals and teaching institutions as well as smaller remote hospitals giving an accurate representation of the population case mix in India.

The overwhelming enthusiasm amongst Indian surgeons and increasing number of spoke hospitals has necessitated opening two sub hubs in the Southern and Eastern parts of the country at:

1. Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, South India
2. Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata, Bengal, East India