UW PROGRESS Partners
OUR PARTNERS
Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center
The Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center (HIPRC) is a worldwide leader in injury cause and prevention research. Founded in 1985, HIPRC is affiliated with the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. HIPRC is committed to public engagement and strives to partner with impacted communities in achieving injury prevention and health equity across the lifespan.
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) is the region’s premier pediatric surgical care facility with a mission to provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible. Outside of Oregon, it is the only American College of Surgeon’s Verified Surgery Center within the Northwest, which means that it is the only facility that has been found to have the resources necessary to generate optimal patient outcomes for children needing surgical care.
UW Medicine Regional Burn Center
UW Medicine Regional Burn Center (UWMRBC) at Harborview Medical Center is the Pacific Northwest’s only American Burn Association-verified burn center. As such, UWMRBC cares for people who live in rural and remote locations, including in areas of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. UWMRBC produces innovative research by participation in multi-center trials, longitudinal outcome studies, and novel projects (e.g., geriatric care, microbiome science, non-opioid small molecules for pain). Importantly, UWMRBC is committed to research, capacity development and education with partners in low-resource settings. Partnerships with leaders in burn care at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Burn Unit in Kumasi, Ghana and Nepal Cleft and Burn Center in Kirtipur, Nepal are generating important findings that will shape burn care locally and globally.
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) is located in Kumasi, Ghana, and is one of the premier universities in West Africa. KNUST and UW have a long-standing partnership committed to injury prevention and control, trauma care capacity development, and other global surgery initiatives. The KNUST-UW partnership has been the platform for training Ghanaian and UW students, residents, and fellows. Additionally, the partnership has been independently funded through NIH/Fogarty International Center and Department of Defense grants. KNUST hosts one of the NIH/Fogarty Global Health Research Fellowships.
Nepal Cleft and Burn Center
Nepal Cleft and Burn Center (NCBC) at Kirtipur Hospital in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal is the country’s major burn care facility and premier plastic and reconstructive surgery training program. Collaborative research projects between UW and NCBC are focused on cookstove fire and injury prevention, enteral resuscitation for burn injuries, and quality improvement programming. NCBC hosts one of the NIH/Fogarty Global Health Research Fellowships.
International Blast Injury Research Network
The International Blast Injury Research Network (IBRN) is a multidisciplinary collaborative generating innovative research to reduce civilian harm from blast injuries. The IBRN addresses global issues of blast injury through activities in a range of domains including clinical trauma care, engineering and public health. In addition to strengthening evidence and promoting research uptake, the IBRN facilitates cooperation and collaboration between sectors including academia, defense, and humanitarian organizations around the consequences of explosive weapons on civilian populations.
PROGRAM MENTORS
Peter Donkor — Ghana
Peter Donkor is a Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. In addition to his leadership roles at KNUST, West African College of Surgeons, and Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, he is a leader in injury prevention and control and trauma care research. He is an editor of DCP3 Essential Surgery. Prof. Donkor is also the PI of a NIH/Fogarty training grant focused on injury prevention and control in West Africa.
Adam Gyedu is a broadly trained general surgeon and prolific researcher. He is the chief surgeon at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Hospital and leads the UW-KNUST research program. He has NIH-funded research on trauma care and works on other global surgery topics including access to care, universal health coverage and clinical outcomes.
Shankar Rai — Nepal
Shankar Rai and a group of talented and committed plastic and reconstructive surgeons at Nepal Cleft and Burn Center at Kirtipur Hospital have been burn prevention and care champions in Nepal for many years. In addition to supporting the country’s premier plastic and reconstructive surgery training program, they administer a burn fellowship and support an active research program. Topics focused on include preventing cookstove-related fires and injuries, enteral resuscitation, and microbiome science.
Kathryn Chu — South Africa
Kathryn Chu is the head of the Centre for Global Surgery at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town. The Centre is engaged in several projects to improve the delivery of surgical care, especially to patients in rural regions in South African and other countries in the region. Prof. Chu has also extensive experience in humanitarian surgical care with her work in many roles with Médecins San Frontièrs over the past two decades.
Pradeep Navsaria, a trauma surgeon at the University of Cape Town, and Dr. Riaan Duvenage, Head of Surgery at Worcester Regional Hospital in the Western Cape are two key surgeon collaborators engaged in several projects to improve the timely delivery of high-quality surgical care in the region.
Sudha Jayaraman — Rwanda
Together with lead Dr. Sudha Jayaraman, Head of The University of Utah’s Center for Global Surgery, a multidisciplinary collaboration is working together in NIH-funded research to improve prehospital care in Kigali, Rwanda. The group includes the head of the Emergency Department at the main teaching hospital in Kigali, Dr. Menelas Nkeshimana, as well as leadership from the Service d’Aide Médicale d’Urgance (SAMU) ambulance service, Mr. Jean Marie Uwitonze, representatives from the Ministry of Health, Dr. Theophile Dushime, and the technology development hub RwandaBuilds, led by Mr. Rob Rickard.
Surgical Equity Workgroup to Underscore Population Health
Surgical Equity Workgroup to Underscore Population Health (SEW-UP) is a multidisciplinary group at Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH) that was developed in 2020 to delineate inequities in surgical care across the Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho (WAMI) region, determine why such gaps exist, and implement innovative measures to achieve delivery of safe, high-quality, affordable surgical care for all children. It strives to work through hospital-based, community-based and policy-based approaches that address not just the health of individuals, but also the health and welfare of the populations in which they live.