Shows
Sister SurgeonsEp22: Dr. Tahir Ghaznavi - Our Man in Afghanistan - updates us on the Taliban, 1 million Afghan children starving to death, and Afghan immigrants stuck in UgandaAfghan refugees stuck in Uganda en route to USA, Pakistani flight fees out of Kabul up from 150 USD to 2,500 USD, the insurmountable Afghan winter and starvation certain to kill millions... and on the bright side, ongoing demonstrations in-country supporting the rights of girls and women. Dr. Tahir Ghaznavi is a physician and Programme Specialist with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) who first spoke with us in Episode 20 [posted 07 Sep 2021]. Though Afghanistan has fallen off the mainstream televised media outlets in the United States, it remains an evolving, downward-spiraling global crisis with U.S. citizens still stuck in-country and...2021-10-1538 minSister SurgeonsEp21: Calling all students! Meet Tufts Medical Student Anusha Jayaram - the U.S. & Canadian Co-Chair of the Global Surgery Students AllianceSearching for a role model who can show you how to Stay in Your Lane while simultaneously accelerating gender equity in surgery and the decolonization of global health? The Sisters are thrilled to share the strategies, accomplishments and vision of Anusha Jayaram, a 5th year medical student at Tufts University and a recent graduate of the Research Associate Fellowship at Harvard's Program in Global Surgery and Social Change. She is also the North American Co-Chair of a dynamic group of undergrad and medical students dedicated to surgery - the Global Surgery Student Alliance. as well as a leader within...2021-09-2137 minSister SurgeonsEp20: Dr. Tahir Ghaznavi shares hopes & fears for women & girls of Afghanistan - feat. Guest co-host Midwife Dr. Pandora HardtmanAn Afghan national, Dr. Tahir Ghaznavi shares his unvarnished, insider perspective on the impact of the US withdrawal on women and girls in Afghanistan with Lauri and guest co-host Dr. Pandora Hardtman. Pandora is an international Midwifery leader who has worked extensively in fragile states and refugee communities.
Share your comments, questions and suggestions with Sister Surgeons - we love to hear from our listeners!
Dr. Mohammed Tahir Ghaznavi of Afghanistan is a Programme Specialist with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), currently stationed with UNFPA Libya and Tunisia. Dr. Ghaznavi is a committed...2021-09-071h 07Sister SurgeonsEp19: Honorary Sister Mark Shrime on health & financial risk in rich and poor countriesRwanda has better health insurance- Mutuelle de Sante - than the United States where citizens live in constant, birth-to-death risk of catastrophic health expenditure. Yes, America, we're talking about you. In this episode, Suzy, Lauri and honorary Sister Professor Mark Shrime ponder healthcare financial risk across the international spectrum, where Rwanda's Mutuelle lies in close proximity to the UK's National Health Service and Canadian Medicare, while the U.S., with it's debacle of racial/ethnic inequity in maternal health safety, decreasing life expectancy and expanding healthcare deserts, seems incapable of expanding either Medicaid or Medicare into guaranteed lifetime coverage...2021-08-3155 min
Sister SurgeonsEp18: Florence Belleghem of One.Surgery shares her perspective on anaesthesia and the decolonization of global healthWe promise, this won't hurt a bit. Joining the Sisters from Belgium, Florence Belleghem is an anesthesia resident and philosopical mentor-in-the-making who, as a medical student, helped found and launch the open-source platform One.Surgery. Florence talks with Sister Surgeons about her commitment to ethics in action on the global stage, having learned difficult lessons while witnessing people from high-income countries taking on healthcare work for which they are not qualified while working for charities in low-income countries. Florence also shares her experience as a woman anesthesiologist navigating gender dynamics in the operating theatre in 2021. Join us in our...2021-08-2546 minSister SurgeonsEp 17:Infection Prevention on Planet Earth with Dr. Unarose HoganMeet one of the Sisters' favorite behind the scenes colleagues - Dr. Unarose Hogan. From Ireland across Europe, much of Africa and into South East Asia, Unarose supports colleagues to prevent infection even when health systems appear to barely have enough to get by.
Unarose Hogan, (PhD, MSc, BSc, R.N.) has spent the past seventeen years working in global health security, infection control, academia and clinical practice; primarily living in Sub Saharan Africa but also working in Central and South East Asia and Eastern Europe. Presently she is an Infection Control Advisor with Americares, a...2021-08-1735 minSister SurgeonsEp16: Sarah Craven and Rachel Moynihan rock the world at UNFPAIf you are a girl, a woman, or know someone who is, join us in celebrating the pivotal role played by The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in securing the rights of girls and women to live as empowered, foundational citizens. Or maybe you need to know how the 43rd president of the United States -GW that is - came by the moniker "Rubbers Bush". We got it all, right here!
UNFPA was established in 1969, 4 years before the 1973 United States' landmark reproductive rights case of Roe v. Wade. The UNFPA is the largest international source of...2021-08-0341 minSister SurgeonsEp15: WASH what? Susan K. Barnett on Water, Sanitation & HygieneAs we live our way into conditions of chronic pandemic occurring inside rapid shifts in climate, water security is less assured no matter where you are in the world. In addition to drinking water, competition for the water we need for sanitation and hygiene is mounting, from households to hospitals. Challenges include long-standing global inequities between rich and poor countries and growing local inequities between rich and poor areas within wealthy countries, such as the ongoing water supply debacle in Flint, Michigan, USA.
Sister Surgeons has the pleasure of talking with Susan K Barnett, an award-winning...2021-07-2359 minSister SurgeonsEp14: Equity Matters - Dr Michelle Joseph on the Future of Fairness"If they're not there, it ain't fair."
Within the influential world of high-level global health conferences lives a sad and recalcitrant injustice. Though international in design and scope, high-profile meetings too often fail to include professional healthcare colleagues who actually live and work in the low-income countries (LIC) that are the raison d'etre of these gatherings. So if LIC colleagues can't be there, is it really global? Whose voice truly matters?
With their ground-breaking work in the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, Michelle and her team are...2021-07-0649 minSister SurgeonsSeason 2 Ep4: Stay in your lane part 3: Prof Salome Maswime, Head of Global Surgery at U Cape Town, on the decolonization of global healthDr. Salome Maswime is an ObGyn, Professor of Global Surgery and maternal/newborn health champion based in South Africa. She shares the why and the how of staying in one's lane as a necessary mandate for the decolonization of global health. But that's not all... Want to be of real use when working outside your own country? Prof Maswime shares her wisdom and advice.
Prof Salome Maswime on Twitter
Prof Salome Maswime Wikipedia bio
Prof Salome Maswime Lancet profile
Discovery Foundation Harvard Mass General Hospital Fellowship - Dr. Maswime's grant2021-03-091h 02Sister SurgeonsSeason2 Ep3: Stay in your lane part 2 - Equity, Ethics and Evidence in Global Health - mapping the journeySister Surgeons reviews evidence on the where, what and how global health is undergoing transformation through remedial decolonization, and how it supports the work of students, health trainees and accomplished health professionals who are, or who hope to, "be the change they want to see in the world". Here are some tools to guide your journey as an equity champion, particularly when engaged outside your home countries.
Prof Madhukar Pai, Chair of Epidemiology and Global Health, McGill University in Forbes "Global health research needs more than a makeover"
Winners take all: The elite...2021-03-021h 04Sister SurgeonsSeason 2 Ep 2: Stay in your lane part 1 - Equity, Ethics & Evidence in Global HealthSister Surgeons shares Global Health Equity and Ethics for health professionals seeking global health opportunities. This installment of Stay In Your Lane rolls through portions of Lauri's 2020 presentation entitled Equity, Ethics and Evidence: a lens on doing no harm while being of use overseas at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Health at University of California Health Sciences: San Diego. In this episode, we roll through the Equity and Ethics portions. We'll cover Evidence in a follow-on podcast.
For Sister Surgeons fans who want to share their global health hopes, fears and experiences, please do...2021-02-1937 minSister SurgeonsSeason 2 Ep1: Somaliland in the HOUSE! Dr. Shukri Mohamed Dahir shares her storyDr. Shukri M. Dahir is a woman to watch in global health and a General Surgery resident at Edna Adan University Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Shukri joins Lauri and Suzy to launch 2021 Season 2 of Sister Surgeons, sharing her experiences and professional visions as a champion for Somaliland, a talented physician and surgeon, a healthcare strategist and an Africanist leader in the making.
Edna Adan Hospital Foundation
College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa
Annals of African Medicine
The PanAfrican Medical Journal
Ethiopian Journal of...2021-01-2644 minSister SurgeonsEp9: Pale, Male and Stale - a contemporary ponder with Prof Geoffrey CundiffHonorary "Sister" Geoff Cundiff joins Suzy and Lauri to consider what it means to be a privileged white male academic Obstetrics and Gynecology leader navigating anti-racism and the decolonization of healthcare as these forces transform the very landscape he helped to shape. To quote Bette Davis' line in the Hollywood classic, All About Eve; "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"
Have a question? Want to make a comment? Click here!
Professor Geoffrey Cundiff, University of British Columbia
Nell Irvin Painter: The History of White People
2020-12-1540 minSister SurgeonsEp8: Canadian vs U.S. healthcare with Professor Geoff CundiffProfessor Geoff Cundiff, honorary "Sister", worked in the United States for many years before emigrating to Canada to work at the University of British Columbia. Together we tackle the burning question: Is Canadian healthcare "healthier" than healthcare in the United States? Comparing and contrasting the health systems and the Obstetrician/Gynecologist physician education and training processes, Geoff and Lauri explore the much-welcomed shift in health systems research to include the perspective of the patients in measures of success and failure. If "we treasure what we measure", which do we care more about - the patients or the profits?
2020-12-1133 minSister SurgeonsEP7: Pandemic pipelines and bottlenecks in global healthSuzy and Lauri anticipate impacts, both negative and positive, of the 2nd wave of the pandemic on global health collaborations.
Have a question or comment? Click here!
Related links:
Voice of America: In Tackling COVID-19, Africa Gives World Lesson.
CDC: Is it COVID or Ebola?
UNICEF: Is it Ebola or malaria? A diagnostic challenge
British Medical Journal: Positive effects of covid-19 and social determinants of health: all in it together?
British Medical Journal: The positive effects of covid-19
---
This episode is sponsored...2020-12-0836 minSister SurgeonsEP6: COVID19 - catalyst for change in global health?In this episode, Suzy and Lauri take a break from living inside COVID19 challenges to ruminate on the not-so-evident, emerging and potential future positive impacts of the pandemic on global health. As the pandemic enters the 2nd wave that is sure to wreak havoc on resource-poor and poorly implemented health systems, we take a moment to remember that disaster also brings opportunities. In this episode we explore the revitalizing aspects emerging in global health, either due to or accelerated by the COVID19 pandemic. As the 2nd tsunami wave crests over the heads of all who live in the USA...2020-11-1731 minSister SurgeonsEP5: Global health ethics with Dr. John Varallo -"honorary sister" and champion of global health equityDr. John Varallo is the Global Director of Safe Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Program for Global Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics, also known by its acronym, JHPIEGO. John works both overseas, running JHPIEGO programs in low-income countries in Africa and Asia, as well as with marginalized communities in the USA. During the COVID pandemic, he has been working with underserved communities in Alaska.
In Episode 5, we explore the ethics of providing health care in poor communities in other countries and in our own here in the medically underserved zones of the United States. John shares...2020-11-0347 minSister SurgeonsEP4: De-colonizing Global Health with Dr Sierra WashingtonThe roots of global health are anchored in historic programs designed to keep colonizers healthy during flares of endemic illness. The underpinning goals included maintaining apace the flow of resources out of the colonies to the colonialists' home country, even, and especially, when these endemic illnesses decimated the colonized, indigenous populations whose health was excluded from colonizers' programs to combat, for example, malaria, yellow fever and cholera across African and Asian colonies.
Today, the decolonization of global health is gaining momentum. Sister Surgeons will explore this topic in a series of podcast episodes.
...2020-10-2042 minSister SurgeonsEP3: Handmaid's Tale 2.0? A global lens on eugenics, contraception, egg freezing and forced hysterectomiesDr. Sierra Washington, Director of Global Health for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the State University of New York/Stonybrook Renaissance School of Medicine, talks with the Sisters about the history of the Eugenics Movement, contraception/family planning in the US and across the world, egg freezing for professionals and forced hysterectomies for detained immigrants within the world of reproductive health and rights.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-eugenics-and-birth-control/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/07/23/racism-eugenics-margaret-sanger-deserves-no-honors-column/5480192002/
https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/index.html
https://www.rollingstone.com...2020-10-0632 minSister SurgeonsEP2: UN General Assembly, World Health Assembly, Race and Health during COVID-19Suzy and Lauri explore the "how to" of getting involved in global health through UNGA and WHA annual events, and how it all ties into today's dynamics around race, health and COVID-19.
Suzy and U.K. colleagues recent peer-reviewed publication:
Occupational risk prevention, education and support in black, Asian and ethnic minority health workers in the COVID-19 pandemic
Harvard Business Review:
The Disproportionate Impact of Covid-19 on Black Health Care Workers in the U.S.
United Nations General Assembly 75 (#UNGA75)
In Focus: The 75th...2020-09-2230 minSister SurgeonsEP1: Sister Surgeons begin the journey with who, what and whyDr. Lauri Romanzi, from New York City, and Dr. Suzy Elneil, from London, start the conversation on how global surgeons, as women and champions of women's health and rights, are navigating the pandemic as mentors and colleagues. It's different for girls - no matter what or where one does what one does.
---
This episode is sponsored by
ยท Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
---
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/l-romanzi-s-elneil/message
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/l-romanzi-s-elneil/support2020-09-0731 min