CITATION: Niyikuri A, Smith ER, Vervoort D. Top 10 resources in global surgery. Glob Health Sci Pract. 2020;8(3):606-611. https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00050

KEY MESSAGES
– The most useful resource reported was Global Surgery 2030, along with other publications, data collection tools, books and training manuals, and a documentary.
– This list could serve as a starting point for individuals interested in global surgery and be supplemented with resources advocating for global surgery from clinical, population health, or policy perspectives.

THE TOP 10
Publications
– Surgery and Global Health: A View from Beyond the OR (2008) is widely regarded as the impetus for global surgery to become a major global health emphasis…
– Global Surgery 2030, a report by The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (2015), repeatedly topped lists as the most useful and impactful resource…
– Cost-Effectiveness of Surgery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of surgical interventions that could be available at district hospitals in LMICs (2014).

Datasets/Data Collection Tools
– WHO Surgical Safety Checklist
– Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data
– World Bank Development Indicators

Books and Manuals
– The third edition of the Disease Control Priorities (DCP3) series
– Global Surgery: An Introduction
– WHO Surgical Care Systems Strengthening: Developing National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anaesthesia Plans to highlight the importance of NSOAPs and the progress made in selected countries around the world.

Documentary
– The Checklist Effect, a 2015 documentary by the Lifebox Foundation

CONCLUSION
We identified key resources as relevant to practitioners from various specialties and stages of their careers and listed the top 10 resources relevant to individuals across all groups. We hope that this list will serve as a starting point for individuals interested in global surgery and aid in promoting global surgery awareness, scholarship, and collaboration toward a world in which safe surgical and anesthesia care is a reality for all.

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A resource is only useful if it can be accessed. Would anyone like to volunteer to assess which of these resources are freely available online?

Best wishes, Neil

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