IVUmed Traveling Resident Scholar Report
Matthew Ingham, MD
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Dakar Senegal – March 26 – April 3, 2016
Mentor: Kurt McCammon, MD
Sponsored by: Mid-Atlantic Section of the AUA
The generous support of the Mid-Atlantic Section of the AUA made possible Dr. Matthew Ingham’s recent IVUmed Traveling Resident Scholar experience in Dakar, Senegal. IVUmed is grateful to Dr. Kurt McCammon from Eastern Virginia Medical School for acting as Dr. Ingham’s mentor.
Dr. Ingham reported, “As the pan-African urology conference, Uro-Dak, was to take place later in the week, Monday signaled the beginning of the pre-conference surgical workshops. We all changed into our OR attire and assembled in the conference room where the residents presented the various patients that would be undergoing surgery that day. As the residents were…enthusiastically…questioned and corrected by the audience, I found it fun to see that some aspects of resident life are inescapable, whether you are in the US or western Africa! By the time the presentations were done, we walked to the OR to find our first patient. As we draped the patient and began the case, what seemed like an endless stream of observers began to fill the room. This crowd of attendings and residents from across Africa proved to be a very interested and interactive audience. It was during this case that I first encountered some of the limitations faced in a less resource-rich medical setting.
“Throughout our time there I could not help but reflect back on IVUmed’s motto: Teach One, Reach Many. I feel this trip was the epitome of that ideal, as urologists from across all of Africa were able to experience what IVUmed stands for. This was nicely illustrated by an email I received a few days after returning from the trip when Dr. Rotimi, a fellow senior resident working at a hospital in Nigeria, wrote to say, ‘Thank you for making time out of your very busy schedules to come help us in Africa. Your dedication, selflessness, dexterity and advanced skills are a source of genuine inspiration to us on the continent.’
“The opportunity to participate in this trip was truly life changing for me. I cannot express the degree of gratitude I owe the Mid-Atlantic Section of the AUA for sponsoring my Travelling Resident Scholarship. I will continually strive to embody the Teach One, Reach Many philosophy to which IVUmed ascribes. I eagerly await my next opportunity to work abroad and plan to make such efforts a continued part of my future career in urology.”
