The pillars of our work at IGOT are research and knowledge exchange. The issues we advocate for within these pillars include
Adult Trauma
IGOT focuses on more accurately documenting the burden of adult orthopaedic trauma, mechanisms of injury, common treatments and through research hopes to advocate for a redistribution and reallocation of resources based on the needs of our partnering institutions. The rising global prevalence of motor vehicle accidents and other causes of adult trauma injuries pose a profound impact on the socioeconomic well being of those who suffer as most are of working age. These injuries are primarily orthopaedic related in nature and most result in unprecedented levels of morbidity and mortality.
Pediatric Orthopaedics
Trauma does not discriminate based on age and children make up a significant portion of the population suffering from traumatic orthopaedic injuries globally. This, in addition to congenital orthopaedic deformities and lack of access to health care facilities compounds the volume of morbidity associated with pediatric orthopaedic injuries for children in low and middle income countries. IGOT supports existing NGO’s focused on pediatric orthopaedic injuries and works with our partnering institutions to advocate, build upon and develop research capacity for pediatric orthopaedics.
Disaster Management
Disasters, particularly earthquakes, are inevitable yet a universal standard to manage the response efforts does not exist. IGOT’s focus is on disasters that typically result in orthopaedic injuries. Although there is an exhaustive amount of literature on individual experiences there lacks a concerted effort within academic literature to understand how to better prepare for and manage these disasters. IGOT is not a disaster relief organization but rather serves as a resource to document, survey and critically evaluate disaster management through research, partnering with AAOS and the OTA to develop recognized tools to assess future efforts.
Mobile Health Technologies
One of the greatest opportunities to build capacity to perform research in the developing world derives from the explosion of mobile technology globally. IGOT will focus on the implementation of available mobile resources to allow our partners to collect quality data on the volume of patients they help so they can advocate for the resources they need to improve the lives of their patients.
Cost Effectiveness
Surgery, particularly orthopaedic surgery, has historically been excluded on the global health agenda. This is arguably due to the stigma that surgery is technologically dependent, requires expensive equipment, and advanced skill sets. Therefore, when compared to immunizations or infectious disease interventions surgery is not deemed cost effective. IGOT strives to debunk this myth through research. Our cost-effectiveness projects profile surgical interventions that concurrently empower our partner institutions to advocate for the reallocation and redistribution of resources to orthopaedic surgery. IGOT advocates for cost effective surgery to be a forefront on the global health agenda due to the rising global burden of orthopaedic injuries that need to be treated by surgery.
Capacity Building
Orthopaedic injuries will continue to be a consistent burden globally yet the current resources allocated to meet the needs of these injuries is limited especially in developing countries. We supports our partnering institutions through capacity building projects, specifically supporting the development of on the ground research to engage leaders in developing countries to answer their own questions, addressing their own needs and in doing so ensures a sustainable approach to build the capacity of knowledge, resources and skills to address the growing need.
