News & Updates

November 29, 2020 By globalmedsurge

‘Tis the season for being grateful…and generous

How can the world be so different in such a short time? I mused as I sat down to write this annual letter after reviewing the one that I wrote to you one year ago. As I reflected on the many things for which I am thankful this year, I also realized that the burdens have gotten much heavier for many during this global pandemic. My heart goes out to all who have suffered from the virus or who have lost family or friends. It has been a difficult year for everyone in one way or another.

Our teams have been unable to return to Kenya or to Uganda this fall and winter. Out of an abundance of caution for our patients, their families, in-country health care workers and our own team members, we await a safer time to travel. Meanwhile, children with cleft lip and palate are born every day and the paucity of surgeons in Kenya and Uganda will lead to a pent up demand for our services and ongoing suffering for the untreated patients. Therefore, we ask for your generous donations to prepare us to meet these needs. For those who are able to help us prepare for upcoming trips in 2021, we are grateful. We are tentatively planning for an August, 2021 trip to Uganda as we hope for successful vaccination programs. Our monthly fixed expenses have continued during the pandemic and we have held off on fundraising until now. We want to be ready and able to purchase supplies and equipment as soon as we determine that it is safe for us to travel. For those who are unable to give financially, we also covet your well wishes and prayers that we can soon resume our travels and continue training nurses and doctors to provide specialized surgical care to their fellow citizens.

Because of your gifts, people in remote areas of the world have access to necessary medical and surgical care. This is going to be even more important in the next few years as access to care has been reduced due to the pandemic.

May this season of being thankful and of giving find you safe and in good spirits. Thank you for making the world a better place, one smile at a time.

Sincerely,

Michelle

October 9, 2020 By globalmedsurge

Programming with an Eye to the Future

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and with the safety of our patients in mind, GMAST has postponed our 2020 trip to Kenya to a later date. With an eye to future trips, Donny Bertucci, who served as technical support on our 2018 and 2019 trips to Cure, Kijabe, assumed the role as 2020 summer intern to spearhead the development of an inventory system.

Donny helping a patient inflate a soccer ball, October 2019, Cure Hospital, Kijabe, Kenya

A facet of our work that often proves challenging is the organization and tracking of medical supplies. Members of our team carry in suitcases containing hundreds of pounds of supplies every time we travel and, while most of it is used, we leave any remnants for our next trip or for the next cleft lip/palate team. In the past, we have kept large spreadsheets shared among the teams to track the locations and amounts of supplies, but Donny is working on a better solution.

Suitcases of supplies on their way to Kenya, October 2019, Portland International Airport

Due to his experience with GMAST, Donny is uniquely qualified to address the specific issues that arise for international medical charities in the transportation and tracking of supplies. When describing his goals for the software, tentatively named MIS (Medical Inventory System), Donny stated:

“Usually when I am developing software I want to have a problem to solve in mind, and in this case the problems were: 1) It was hard to collaborate with other people in distant places to add to the inventory, 2) It becomes extremely time consuming and error prone to use spreadsheets to keep track of inventory, and 3) spreadsheets aren’t user friendly to many of our team members.

So with those problems in mind, It took around two months to create a mobile and shared medical inventory system (MIS) that is browser based and usable on their mobile phone, iPad, or laptop. MIS allows any number of team members to add or update our medical supplies inventory regardless of where they are (and we are spread out all over the world), documents what suitcase or box the supplies are going into, and allows for the team to see our entire inventory across all members. And when the team is in Uganda or Kenya, they can easily keep track of and change inventory on the fly. My hope is that MIS can save a lot of time, have complete accuracy, and be user friendly to everyone that goes on these trips.”

We look forward to utilizing MIS as soon as we are able to start work again. In the meantime wash your hands, wear a mask, and take care of eachother other.

March 26, 2020 By globalmedsurge

Tough decisions for doctors should make staying home an easy one for you

Medical and ethics professionals across the world are having to make decisions about allocating care and resources during the COVID19 pandemic. Many health systems in the US are crafting policies, even as I write, about whether or not to “code” or resuscitate COVID 19 patients. This is as scary to us physicians as it is to you patients. What can you do about it? Stay home. You are less likely to contract the infection if you practice social distancing and stay home. If you stay home, we are less likely to run out of personal protective equipment, less likely to become infected, and hence less likely to have to make decisions or policies that limit our ability to provide care for everyone. For more information on this topic, read this article from the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/25/coronavirus-patients-do-not-resucitate/?utm_campaign=9bcfc89836-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_25_12_50&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Global%20Health%20NOW%20Main%20List

November 24, 2019 By globalmedsurge

Thanksgiving Reflections

Dear Friends,

Two years ago my dream became a reality when I started Global Medical and Surgical Teams. I want to thank you for your support and tell you what happens when you contribute your time or donate your money to GMAST: Lives change. It seems a trite statement but it is true.

Because of your gifts, people in remote areas of the world have access to necessary medical and surgical care:

A tiny baby born with a cleft lip can now breastfeed and get proper nourishment from her mother.
The baby’s mother, who was shunned by family and community members for giving birth to a baby with a cleft lip, is reunited to her social network
A 21-year-old man rejoiced, “I can now get married!” he said after his cleft lip was finally repaired
A 30-year-old woman who had been living with a poorly repaired cleft palate received an obturator (prosthetic device) to close the gap between her mouth and nose so she can speak better and can at last eat and drink without food and liquid spilling out of her nose

Your gifts have further impact:

These trips are valuable experience for volunteers who travel with our Team. Volunteers often return home resolved with new commitments to help others.
People who live in Kenya or Uganda are encouraged by our presence and work – as we come alongside them in their need.
Medical personnel are able to exchange information and learn new skills as they collaborate in the work to care for patients. We partner with local medical teams to invest in long-term, sustainable outcomes.

You change lives through your contributions and we are grateful.

Some examples of how your financial gifts are spent:
We purchase a lot of medical equipment and supplies for each trip. Although we receive some donated supplies, the countries that we travel to have very specific expiration date requirements and many donated medications and sutures have expiration dates that do not meet these requirements. For instance, in Uganda, if we bring ANY medications that expire in less than one year from the date we enter the country, the Ministry of Health can confiscate ALL of our supplies until they have inspected everything and properly disposed of those “short expiration” items. Obviously, this would tie up our supplies until far after the date of our return airplane tickets. We simply can’t take the risk, and so we must purchase longer expiration items to minimize potential risk.

We are committed to providing safe anesthesia and safe surgery so we travel with our own mini hospital of providers, equipment and medication. We also partner with local providers and facilities to enable training and sharing skills and supplies.

We could not do this without you! Each person that travels with us buys their own plane ticket. If we are able (some donors give specifically to help with volunteer expenses), we cover the lodging and food for the volunteers. We also require that each volunteer have travelers’ medical insurance. Last year, an anonymous donor covered this expense for our Uganda team (ranges from $50 to $100 per team member depending on their age). We are grateful for donors who can help with these travel expenses!

I am so proud of our organization and the work that we do. I am moved by the amazing people that I have met during my volunteer medical travels and I am so grateful for the support of friends, family, and complete strangers! You guys are awesome and we truly could not do this work without you. Thank you!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and know that you are making the world a better place, one smile at a time.

Sincerely,
Michelle B. Vessely, MD

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June 12, 2019 By globalmedsurge

GMAST Update June 2019

Global Medical and Surgical Teams (GMAST) hit the ground running in 2019 and we’d like to pause briefly and tell you what’s been going on.

First, thank you! Without our supporters and volunteers, we could not have accomplished our goals. During our Spring Uganda 2019 trip, we were able to return to Kyotera and provide follow up care to patients we had treated in 2018 as well as treat new patients. This type of ongoing commitment to a community is important for sustainability. We were also able to work with Dr. Katwiire, the medical director at Kyotera Medical Centre to identify a Ugandan surgeon to be trained in cleft lip and palate surgery. This is a crucial step in sustainability as well. Education is one of our overarching goals and we learn from those who live and work in the communities we are assisting and the local medical staff can learn from us as well.

That brings me to our big news–the cleft program at Kyotera Medical Centre has been Smile Train approved! This partnership will ensure high quality ongoing care and will allow the facility to make improvements in infrastructure, and to expand access to cleft surgery to the larger community. During our trip in March, we saw several adults who had lived with cleft lip and or palate deformities for as long as 45 years! It is best to treat cleft lip around 3 months of age and cleft palate around 12 months of age, enabling children to grow and develop with the best results from both a functional (speech, swallowing) and cosmetic standpoint. The lack of specialized surgical care in many countries, including Uganda, means that many patients with treatable surgical diagnoses suffer, become disabled or even die unnecessarily. GMAST is committed to improving access to surgical care.

Finally, we were very pleased with how iTriage, our new mobile electronic medical record (EMR), functioned during the March trip. We will continue to develop and expand this product and share it with other nonprofits.

Looking forward, in 2019 we plan to introduce a portal on our website for potential volunteers to submit “interest forms” and for us to build a network of volunteers for future projects.

Again, it takes a village to do the work that we do. You who read about us, share our information with your friends, donate money and/or time to change lives of people you may never meet–you are our heroes and we are very grateful to walk along side you.

Staying true to our mission: “Global Medical and Surgical Teams partners with medical and surgical staff around the world to serve patients and foster healing. We work through medical and surgical missions, education, training, technology and donor relationships to provide specialized medical and surgical care in underprivileged areas.”