Burn injuries are common in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and their associated disability is tragic. This study is the first to explore burn scars in rural communities in Mozambique. This work also validated an innovate burn assessment tool, the Morphological African Scar Contractures Classification (MASCC), used to determine surgical need. Using a stratified, population-weighted survey, the team interviewed randomly selected households from September 2012 to June 2013. Three rural districts (Chókwè, Nhamatanda, and Ribáuè) were selected to represent the southern, central and northern regions of the country. Injuries were recorded, documented with photographs, and approach to care was gathered. A panel of residents and surgeons reviewed the burn scar images using both the Vancouver Scar Scale and the MASCC, a validated visual scale that categorizes patients into four categories corresponding to levels of surgical intervention. Of the 6104 survey participants, 6% (n = 370) reported one or more burn injuries. Burn injuries were more common in females (57%) and most often occurred on the extremities. Individuals less than 25 years old had a significantly higher odds of reporting a burn scar compared to people older than 45 years. Based on the MASCC, 12% (n = 42) would benefit from surgery to treat contractures. Untreated burn injuries are prevalent in rural Mozambique. Our study reveals a lack of access to surgical care in rural communities and demonstrates how the MASCC scale can be used to extend the reach of surgical assessment beyond the hospital through community health workers.

This observational study assesses the association of a new trauma center with transport times for trauma patients as a measure of prompt access to care and specifically examines changes in racial, ethnic, and income disparities in transport times.

Background: Violence intervention programs (VIPs) can reduce interpersonal violence (IPV); however, optimizing the implementation of VIPs is challenging, given the complex dynamics of IPV. System dynamics models (SDMs) provide a means of visualizing dynamic and causal relationships in such complex systems. We use the IPVSDM to characterize and examine the relationship between IPV, VIPs, and the social determinants of health (SDH). Materials and methods: The simulation model was created from a diagram that links putative causal relationships between VIPs, SDH, and IPV events. Simulation rules are then used to calculate a risk of violence parameter based on the SDH, which drives the transition from low-risk to high-risk populations and in turn influences IPV event rates. A qualitative relational approach was used to evaluate long-term effects of VIP on IPV events. Results: The model produced qualitatively plausible behavior with respect to IPV events, population transitions, and relative overall VIP effect. Simulation runs converged to stable steady states with an exponential benefit of VIP on reducing IPV that is best appreciated after 1-2 y. The VIP functioned in a recognizable fashion by slowing the shift from low-risk to high-risk populations. Conclusions: This initial implementation of the IPVSDM produced recognizable baseline behavior while incorporating the possible effects of a VIP. The model allows causality and counterfactual testing, which is impractical in vivo. Community-level VIP efforts should show benefit particularly after a couple years. Future work will emphasize adding complexity to the IPVSDM and identifying real-world metrics to aid in testing, validation, and prediction of the model. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gun violence is an epidemic that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. Despite gun violence being disproportionately more lethal than other leading causes of trauma, there is a dearth of research being carried out on its root causes and prevention strategies. For the past 20 years, lobbying and politics have interfered with the forward progress of gun violence research. Physicians have a history of producing actionable public-health change and have an ethical obligation to fight for the research that will benefit their patients.

Purpose of review This review explores ongoing efforts to document the global burden of surgical disease. The chapter recaps the theoretical basis for surgical disease burden measurement. It then focuses on the indirect and direct epidemiology of surgical disease throughout the world, with a particular focus on global and low-and middle-income country ( LMIC) work.Recent findings This review will focus on the results of peer-reviewed publications concerning surgical burden epidemiology from the last 5 years. It will demonstrate the multiple attempts to define which surgical conditions should be treated to meet high unmet needs for surgical care. It will also describe the results of modeling, field epidemiology, and alternate methods for assessing global, regional, and country burdens of surgical disease.Summary Many people in the LMICs live without access to sufficient surgical care. Research from the past 5 years has begun to define this unmet need.

Background While surgical care impacts a wide variety of diseases and conditions with non-operative and operative services, both preventive and curative, there has been little discussion concerning how surgery might be integrated within the health system of a low and middle-income country (LMIC), nor how strengthening surgical services may improve health systems and population health.Methods We reviewed reports from several meetings of the working group on health systems strengthening of the Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care, and also performed a review of the literature including the search terms "surgery," "health system," "developing country," "health systems strengthening," "health information system," "financing," "governance," and "integration."Results The literature search revealed no reports which focused on the integration of surgical services within a health system or as a component of health system strengthening. A conceptual model of how surgical care might be integrated within a health system is proposed, based on the discussions of our working group, combined with sources from the medical literature, and utilizing the World Health Organization's conceptual model of a health system.Conclusions Strengthening the delivery of surgical services in LMICs will require inputs at multiple levels within a health system, and this effort will require the coalescence of committed individuals and organizations, supported by civil society.

High disease burden and inadequate resources have formed the basis for advocacy to improve surgical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Current measures are heavily focused on availability of resources rather than impact and fail to fully describe how surgery can be more integrated into health systems. We propose a new monitoring and evaluation framework of surgical care in LMICs to integrate surgical diseases into broader health system considerations and track efforts toward improved population health. Although more discussion is required, we seek to broaden the dialogue of how to improve surgical care in LMICs through this comprehensive framework.

Mozambique, a country in sub-Saharan Africa, has experienced a severe physician shortage for many years, with patients having particularly limited access to surgical care. Medical education and surgical research partnerships formed in 2010 between Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Mozambique and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is developing potential solutions to the nation’s surgical care crisis. The findings that have emerged from this initiative, which are aimed at scaling up surgical services, will likely have important implications for improving surgical care in Mozambique and other underserved nations.

The World Health Organization has identified the primary referral hospital as its priority site for improving surgical care in low- and middle-income countries. Little is known about the relative burden surgical patients place on health care facilities at this level. This research estimates the fraction of admissions due to surgical conditions at three hospitals in rural Mozambique.

Background: Surgical care is increasingly recognised as an important component of global health delivery. However, there are still major gaps in knowledge related to access to surgical care in low-income countries. In this study, we compare distances travelled by surgical patients with patients seeking other medical services at a first-level hospital in rural Mozambique.Methods: Data were collected on all inpatients at Hospital Rural de Chokwe in rural Mozambique between 20 June 2012 and 3 August 2012. Euclidean distances travelled by surgical versus non-surgical patients using coordinates of each patient's city of residence were compared. Data were analysed using ArcGIS 10 and STATA.Results: In total, 500 patients were included. Almost one-half (47.6%) lived in the city where the hospital is based. By hospital ward, the majority (62.0%) of maternity patients came from within the hospital's city compared with only 35.2% of surgical patients. The average distance travelled was longest for surgical patients (42 km) compared with an average of 17 km for patients on all other wards.Conclusions: Patients seeking surgical care at this first-level hospital travel farther than patients seeking other services. While other patients may have access to at community clinics, surgical patients depend more heavily on the services available at first-level hospitals.