Global Neurosurgery: Progress and Resolutions at the 75th World Health Assembly

Roxanna M. Garcia, Department of Neurological Surgery, Northwestern University, Chicago , Illinois , USA.
Kemel A. Ghotme, Translational Neuroscience Research Lab, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de La Sabana, Chía , Colombia.
Anastasia Arynchyna-Smith, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham , Alabama , USA.
Priyanka Mathur, McGaw Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago , Illinois , USA.
Marinus Koning, ReachAnother Foundation, Bend , Oregon , USA.
Frederick Boop, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis , Tennessee , USA.
Dan Peterson, The G4 Alliance, Chicago , Illinois , USA.
Natalie Sheneman, The G4 Alliance, Chicago , Illinois , USA.
Walter D. Johnson, Center for Global Surgery, Loma Linda University, California , USA.
Kee B. Park, Global Neurosurgery Initiative, Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Harvard Medical School, Boston , Massachusetts , USA.
Dylan Griswold, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford , California , USA.
Camilla G. Aukrust, Department of Neurosurgery, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo , Norway.
Ernest J. Barthélemy, Division of Neurosurgery, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, New York , USA.
Geoffrey Ibbotson, The Global Surgery Foundation, Geneva , Switzerland.
Jeffrey P. Blount, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham , Alabama , USA.
Gail L. Rosseau, Department of Neurosurgery, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington , District of Columbia , USA.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-1-2023

Journal

Neurosurgery

Volume

93

Issue

3

DOI

10.1227/neu.0000000000002472

Abstract

Neurosurgical advocates for global surgery/neurosurgery at the 75th World Health Assembly gathered in person for the first time after the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland, in May 2022. This article reviews the significant progress in the global health landscape targeting neglected neurosurgical patients, emphasizing high-level policy advocacy and international efforts to support a new World Health Assembly resolution in mandatory folic acid fortification to prevent neural tube defects. The process of developing global resolutions through the World Health Organization and its member states is summarized. Two new global initiatives focused on the surgical patients among the most vulnerable member states are discussed, the Global Surgery Foundation and the Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and other Neurological Disorders. Progress toward a neurosurgery-inspired resolution on mandatory folic acid fortification to prevent spina bifida-folate is described. In addition, priorities for moving the global health agenda forward for the neurosurgical patient as it relates to the global burden of neurological disease are reviewed after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Department

Neurological Surgery

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS