IGCS Members,
We are pleased to announce that the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) has entered a strategic partnership with The Global Surgery Foundation (GSF).
The GSF is a non-profit foundation that facilitates and supports the development of surgical, obstetrical and anesthesia care systems that will ensure universal access to emergency and essential surgical care that is safe, timely and affordable. GSF works with governments and frontline providers to build surgical care systems that will save lives and decrease disability. As a common platform for global surgery stakeholders, anchored in the United Nations system, GSF focuses on the low and middle-income countries which are furthest behind.
Our missions intersect in our goals to develop oncologic expertise locally and provide surgical and medical care, participate in research, and provide education related gynecologic cancer treatment where the need is the greatest.
Some of GSF’s programs include:
- The Cervical Cancer Programme aims to combat cervical cancer through increasing access to surgical treatment for the disease. Phase I of this programme focuses on the countries of Zambia and Rwanda for proof of concept and organizational strengthening, while resource mobilization continues for roll-out in other high impact countries for Phase II.
- The National Surgical Obstetric Anesthesia Planning (NSOAP) process which offers ministries of health a pathway to integrate surgical planning into their overall national health strategies increase capacity in safe surgical, obstetrical and anesthesia care. Among other countries, Pakistan and Nepal recently have utilized the NSOAP framework to launch and start the process of developing a national surgical plan, respectively.
- The Collaborative Research Hub is planned as a UN-based platform to foster research collaboration to achieve progress in surgical, obstetrical, anesthesia, and trauma care for LMICs. It serves as a common platform for the leading investigators from research centres around the world.
We’d like to recognize Dr. Geoffrey Ibbotson, GSF’s Executive Director and IGCS’ Mentorship and Training Committee leadership, Dr. Thomas Randall, Dr. Kathleen Schmeler, Dr. Joseph Ng, and Dr. Linus Chuang for their efforts in securing this partnership. IGCS embraces the spirit of collaboration knowing that the strength of our partnerships is powerful and has the potential to make real, lasting change in closing the care gap.
We look forward to planning joint initiatives, defining areas of study, and exploring innovative training and capacity building solutions with The Global Surgery Foundation.
Sincerely,
Robert Coleman, MD
IGCS President