The RCSI/COSECSA collaboration is a long-term partnership that aims to train and retain more surgeons in sub-Saharan Africa and make better surgery available to more patients.
The partnership now reaches 14 countries with membership of COSECSA spanning the following: Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Highlights in 2019
- Presenting 85 new surgeons with their Fellowships, which brings the total number of COSECSA graduates to 346.
- Over 90% are retained in Africa. COSECSA is well on track to achieve its strategic goal of graduating 500 surgeons by 2020
- Reaching the milestone of 200,000 operations recorded in the E-logbook!
- The E-logbook is used by trainee surgeons in over 17 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa making it possible for COSECSA to see in real-time what injuries and illnesses they are treating, gain a sense of patients’ needs across the region, and understand COSECSA’s impact.
- Setting up a new Editorial Board for the COSECSA journal. This journal publishes case reports, clinical research and editorials from surgeons and allied health staff in the region. In contrast to many academic journals, the members of the Editorial board are primarily from low-middle income countries.
Plans for 2020
The CP wants to improve the e-learning platform so it is accessible to surgical trainees and trainers across the region. We hope to continue to develop curricula for smaller, underserved specialities such as paediatric surgery and plastic surgery. Women in Surgery Africa (WiSA) which was set up as a women’s branch of COSECSA in 2015 is thriving; through the partnership we will continue to promote surgery as a career for women. Overall, we are focusing on embedding quality assurance across COSECSA.
