WFNS-WHO Minutes

25 February 2019

Minutes
Zoom Video conference call
February 8, 2019; 1330 Malaga Time (GMT+0)
University of Malaga Rectory Building; Av. De Cervantes 2, Sala de Juntas, 1st floor
Organizer: Gail Rosseau, chairman, WFNS-WHO Liaison Committee

Call to Order and Approval of Minutes of last meeting 12-11-18 in Virginia Beach: Gail Rosseau welcomed the group present in person and online and thanked them for attendance. Motion by Tariq Khan to approve minutes, seconded by Scott Robertson. Motion passed.

WFNS-WHO Liaison Committee Publications (see attachments): Publications reviewed. A call was made for further ideas re: committee publications.

Course on Global Neurosurgical Practice at AANS (see attachment). This new course will be offered for the first time by AANS in San Diego on Sunday, April 14. All Committee members were encouraged to attend and urge colleagues to attend. Course is based on a highly successful template developed by General Surgeons; the curriculum for neurosurgical application was developed by FIENS. This course is viewed as a potential short-term way to increase neurosurgical manpower for training centers in the developing world by using the skills of seasoned neurosurgeons who wish to have a successful volunteer portion of their careers in LMIC. This initiative has the potential to change the culture of neurosurgery in the developed world, to include the frequent choice of volunteering in LMIC as a possible encore career. This course will also be useful for senior residents who wish to pursue Global Neurosurgery but do not have a global program in their residency. A number of well-known leaders in neurosurgery are planning to take this course. In addition, EANS has approved this course, which will be offered at Karl Schaller’s lab, coordinated by Andrea Bartoli, just prior to WHA 2020 in Geneva. Hildo Azevedo-Filho and Tariq Khan both suggested that this course should be offered at both the Beijing 2019 and Bogota 2021 WFNS meetings. They will discuss with Ling Feng and Enrique Osorio

TBI: Cambridge University group: An update was sent by Angelos Kolias. Committee members were encouraged to enroll in the Global Neurosurgery Outcomes Study (https://globalneurotrauma.com). This is the first international neurosurgical/neurotrauma study supported by the WFNS and all continental societies. It is open to all sites performing cranial surgery for neurotrauma. GNOS aims to assess outcomes after cranial surgery for neurotrauma globally. Highlights include: >300 sites have expressed interest; ~70 sites are fully registered, data from >300 patients has been uploaded. The study will continue until October 2019, and will act as the pilot for the Global Neurotrauma Registry.

Update on WHO TBI Collaborative Center: Dr. Andres Rubiano sent a report. He hopes to connect the participants in the GNOS study with their Ministers of Health, in order to sustain the project when the study is completed.
The process with his WHO-TBI Collaborative Center is advancing. They organized a small global neurosurgery symposium last December, at which projects were presented of local Colombian students who are working with University of Pittsburgh and Barrow Children’s Hospital. In addition, advances have been made on the Latin American Neurotrauma Registry. They also convened a meeting of stakeholders to begin discussion about Colombian NSOAPS. The stratified trauma protocol translation to English has been completed. An article on this topic is being prepared for publication and a grant proposal to NIH is being resubmitted. Committee member Roxanna Garcia, neurosurgery resident at Northwestern University, will be doing a Fogarty Fellowship and working with Andres Rubiano.

InterSurgeon Updates: William Harkness sent a report, and will be presenting InterSurgeon in person at the WFNS Foundation Meeting. The adult neurosurgery site has been successfully launched. Presentations to WFNS and AANS, as well as a cooperative partnership with G4 Alliance. Other specialties will soon be joining InterSurgeon, including urology, plastics surgery, ENT, pediatric surgery and orthopedics

WHO topics for neurosurgeons: Publishable recommendations: ICRC Field Manual: Gail Rosseau is writing chapter on Emergency treatment of bleeding with TECC Group (Tactical Emergency Casualty Care) at GWU.

CUGH Conference Surgery Day- March 7, 2019, Chicago: The Consortium of University Programs in Global Health is a good resource for networking with non-clinicians who are experts in global health and health policy. Russell Andrews will attend and report to this committee.

World Health Assembly: The time to plan to be in Geneva May is 17-23, 2019. Gail asked that committee members who plan to attend notify her as soon as possible, as entrants to the Palais des Nations must be registered with WHO. A meeting for the committee and Advocacy Boot Camp has been planned for Friday afternoon, May 17, at the University of Geneva Simulation Lab, thanks to Dept. Chairman, Karl Schaller.

WFNS Symposium in Belgrade March 21-24, 2019 will include Plenary Session on Global Neurosurgery. At this session, the WFNS 2nd Vice Presidents will present the international neurosurgical exchanges that are currently occurring in their regions.

Peshawar TBI Recommendations: Kee Park and his fellow at the Harvard Program in Global Surgery and Social Change presented the 50-page policy document that has been prepared for the International Conference on Recent Advances in Neurotrauma Meeting (ICRAN) Meeting in Peshawar in March. This document will be discussed with the leadership of the province in Pakistan, for eventual inclusion - for the first time - of neurosurgical recommendations into the NSOAP of a country. This can then serve as a template for further neurosurgeon involvement in the NSOAP’s of additional countries.

In additional policy progress, steps are being taken to create a resolution on folate fortification for eventual presentation at WHA. This is a multi-year process.

Next meeting: During AANS San Diego, April 13-17; Committee meeting Date to be determined

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Rosseau,
Chairman, WFNS-WHO Liaison Committee