Are you interested in getting involved in global health? Do you enjoy teaching? Are you open to exploring this possibility because you have an elective month coming up in your residency or the children are off to college now? Or you are retiring and finally have time to get involved? There are many good reasons to encourage you to contribute to the training of anesthesia providers globally, and this article will help explain why.
Anesthesia-associated mortality in developing countries is estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times higher than in developed countries, often due to airway problems and hypovolemia in young, healthy patients. While lack of medications, properly functioning equipment and monitors and transfusion supplies play a large part, inadequate training and supervision of (mostly non-physician) anesthesia providers are major contributing factors.1
In countries like Malawi in East Africa, there are roughly 150 anesthesia providers for nearly 19 million...
