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UTGSM Surgeon Develops Medical Care in Kurdistan

A surgical team including Lou Smith, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Sabina Siddiqui, MD, Surgery Alumnus, traveled to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq recently to participate in the 7th Annual Joint Medical Symposium and to provide clinical and surgical care side by side with medical colleagues who practice in Kurdistan.

Symposium topics focused on the management of trauma and critical care, cancer, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, and minimally invasive surgery/robotic surgery as well as new innovation in telemedicine technology. Dr. Smith, a program director of the symposium, presented, "Trauma and Critical Care Issues in the Pregnant Patient."

After the symposium concluded, the team examined patients during rounds in partnership with Kurdistan medical providers. The team aspires to open an American College of Surgeons Chapter in Kurdistan and hopes that will help the local surgical community to re-establish a much needed relationship with the international surgical and medical community.

Several members of the team have been doing surgical and medical outreach work in Kurdistan since the first Gulf War. However, it was only after the second Gulf War that a comprehensive team was assembled. The symposium is co-sponsored by Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA), Operation Hope (OH), World Surgical Foundation (WSF) and The American Kurdish Medical Group (AKMG). The outreach is also made possible by the support of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Foundation, Ministry of Health as well as with Directorate, Province of Duhok Health Care System.

Posted June 7, 2016