New Gates scholar plans an international surgery exchange programme.
A newly arrived Gates scholar plans to set up an international surgery exchange programme.
Dr Trevor Ellison [2010] is doing an MBA in management at Cambridge this year which he hopes will help him to set up the programme, initially at Johns Hopkins where he is doing his general surgery residency.
The exchange programme he envisages is based on a programme that existed at Johns Hopkins until recently which allowed surgery students to go to Oxford or Dublin for six months in their fourth year. The programme ended two years ago because of changes to the surgery qualifications which meant the number of hours students could work in a week decreased. This meant they could not spare six months abroad to get through the number of cases they needed to qualify.
Dr Ellison wants students to be allowed just one or two months to work abroad before they qualify and approached his chair of surgery who was interested in the idea. He hopes eventually that the model he creates can be used in other universities and create lasting relationships between universities in wealthy areas and developing countries in need of top class surgeons.
“Studies show lots of students are interested in international service these days,” he says. “The problem is you get into a residency programme and you don’t have much time off or money. I think a lot of people would go if there was the facility to do so,” says Dr Ellison.
