ETSU SEAL Global Surgery Fellowship

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

East Tennessee State University's Quillen College of Medicine was founded to increase access to care for rural Appalachia. ETSU understands that access to care is the biggest determinant of health outcomes. In that same paradigm, ETSU has created the Surgical, Education, Access to care and Leadership (SEAL) Global Surgery Fellowship. It is based on the same military paradigm of the Navy SEALs, that cross training makes you a more effective, agile team. The SEAL fellowship is a one-year clinical fellowship based at one of our international sites. As a SEAL fellow, you will be a staff surgeon responsible for covering clinical duties at the hospital including emergency surgery, clinic based practice, elective surgery, and in-patient rounds. It will also include resident and medical student education. The General Surgery practice covers all aspects of surgery from pediatric to plastics to thoracic to general surgery.

Why ETSU? Application Requirements Benefits

Message from the Program Director

Thank you for your interest in our program. Currently, 5 billion people lack access to surgical care. The proportion of the population without access varies widely when stratified by region. More than 95% of the population in south Asia and central, eastern, and western sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to care, whereas less than 5% of the population in Australasia, high-income North America, and western Europe lack access. 143 million additional surgeries are required each year to meet the need. Many global surgery programs are trying to reduce this gap, and we are honored to help assist in this endeavor. If you want to be on the front lines of the health equity battle, please contact us.

• Video Transcript: ETSU Quillen College of Medicine Global Surgery Fellowship Program

  [Speaker: Dr. Luther Ward]
  My name is Dr. Luther Ward, Director of ETSU’s Global Surgery Fellowship program.

  We are a proud part of ETSU’s commitment to increasing access to care across the globe. S.E.A.L stands for Surgery/ Education/Access to Care/Leadership.

  Our premises are diversely trained general surgeon will greatly increased access to surgical care for their surgical workforce shortages.

  We partner with host country hospitals, giving preference to those with training programs and health care financing systems that make caring for the impoverished a priority.

  Let me share a recent, impactful example.

  Monze’s Hospital team underwent endoscopy training alongside our ETSU Global Surgery team, preparing them to provide more comprehensive and quality care to their population.

  Two months later, the chief surgeon at Monze Mission Hospital in Zambia, received a 56 year old father of four beautiful young children.

  Clinical assessment and colonoscopy reveals cancer of the sigmoid colon.

  The following week, Monze’s surgeons removed the cancer and put his colon back together. A few days later, he was discharged home and was able to provide for his family shortly after surgery. In the operating surgeons ten years of practice, this was the first patient he was able to cure thanks to the introduction of endoscopy.

  Without this partnership and training, this patient would have been one of too many deaths from cancers that otherwise are curable in developed countries where diagnosis and screening procedures are accessible.

  As a fellow with our S.E.A.L program, you will spend 1 to 2 years working in a host country hospital, developing surgical care, building surgical systems, and discovering unique solutions to some of the most difficult problems those hospitals in communities face.

  Through our Global Training Model, our program is forging a paradigm and will transform our ability to give high quality, diverse and inexpensive surgical care to any research, poor situation.

  Thank you for your interest in our program. We look forward to hearing from you.

  [Music]