With the support of Caldera Medical, a three-person IVUmed team, led by Dr. Susan Kalota, traveled to Dakar, Senegal to lead a urogynecology workshop from November 16-25, 2018. Dr. Kalota (urologist) was joined by Dr. Lindsey Kerr (urologist) and Dr. James Daucher (obstetrician-gynecologist).
The workshop truly embodied IVUmed’s mission to “Teach One,Reach Many.” Rather than focusing on completing as many surgeries as possible, the goal of this trip was to adequately train local providers. Dr. Kalota reported, “Each case we did was done by a resident or local attending, with us doing only the first procedure or stitch. We ended the week with a case conference, going over each of the cases and what worked, what didn’t, what we thought was important, etc. The participants got to ask questions about the surgeries and the “what ifs.” They expressed the sentiment that they felt it was very useful because they actually were doing the surgeries and we could guide their hands as needed and keep them out of trouble as needed.” Dr. Kalota reported that this was the best IVUmed trip she’s been on and would like to maintain the focus of coaching residents to do cases during future trips.
Dr. Kerr finished the workshop and reported, “it’s been a great week.” She and Dr. Kalota agreed that having a gynecologist, Dr. Daucher, was very useful. They hope future trips will be staffed with a gynecologist as well. Dr. Daucher commented that the trip was a “wonderful opportunity to teach physicians in training and attending physicians basic and advanced urologic procedures.”