An IVUmed surgical workshop usually consists of a one day clinic to evaluate patients and create a surgical schedule for five days of surgery. The 30-80 operations and 100 consultations performed during a typical workshops provide tremendous opportunity for hands-on surgical education. Because of the complexity of the surgery and the need for hospitalization after surgery, we limit the number of surgical operations so as to not overwhelm the host hospital ward staff. During each workshop, we train 2-5 physicians and 4-10 nurses.
We choose our teaching sites based on invitations from doctors in developing countries, their hospital administration and their ministries of health. We then conduct a needs assessment and make an initial site visit. After this, we develop an agreement with each partner site for up to three years of extended surgical service and collaboration with the doctors, nurses and administration of the hospital. We often extend the relationship to include more complex surgery as our partner doctors and nurses develop their skills.