Manama: Smile Train’s Virtual Surgery Simulator, a cleft lip and palate surgical training tool, is to be showcased in Qatar.
The clip will be one of 20 of the world’s newest and most ground-breaking healthcare innovations being presented at the second World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) Summit taking place in the Qatari capital Doha next month.
Smile Train developed the Virtual Surgery Simulator in collaboration with technology company BioDigital to address the challenge of training cleft surgeons around the world. A game-changer in surgical education and training, the Simulator is a 3D, web-based, interactive tool that provides users with essential information and training on cleft anatomy and cleft surgical repair techniques.
The free, web-based tool offers a sustainable, accessible approach to cleft surgical training and advances Smile Train’s mission to provide a long-term, scalable solution to the global challenge of treating cleft lip and palate.
Since its founding in 1999, Smile Train has performed more than one million cleft repair surgeries around the world. The organisation currently reaches more than 350 children each day and 128,000 every year.
“Smile Train is thrilled to share the Simulator and our sustainable training model with experts tackling some of the most pressing and serious global health challenges facing governments, health systems and populations,” Susannah Schaefer, Smile Train CEO, said. “Since its launch in 2013, the Simulator has become a key to our ‘teach a man to fish’ training model, which empowers and trains local doctors to perform cleft surgery in their own communities. Our sustainable training approach is the mantra for our success, allowing us to leverage the support from our hundreds of thousands of donors to assist children suffering from clefts worldwide.”
WISH’s Innovation Showcases offers a platform for smaller, independent start-ups to share healthcare innovations that have the potential to transform lives and save governments’ money. It has received 80 applications from 26 countries spanning all areas of health innovation; from digital healthcare and new products to smart-systems and service updates. All applicants have the potential to transform global health – reducing the costs of healthcare delivery while improving the quality of care for patients – but only 20 could be selected.
The selection was made by the Innovation Showcases Curation Team, consisting of Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH; Dr. Hanan Al Kuwari, Managing Director of Hamad Medical Corporation; Tim Brown of global ideas consultancy IDEO; and Bright Simons, President of mPedigree Network, social innovator and entrepreneur.
