King's College London

Our global surgery research seeks to develop, pilot and evaluate health system strengthening interventions that increase the access to quality, affordable care for those with surgical conditions using implementation science strategies to improve the delivery of these interventions. Our research also focuses on neonatal surgical congenital anomalies, trauma system evaluation, surgical safety and surgical metrics to support national surgical planning.

Andy Leather, Director of the King's Centre for Global Health and Health Partnerships, co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. The Commission report, Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development, was published in 2015.

There are currently six PhD students on the global surgery programme including the following topics:

• Developing and piloting an interventional bundle to reduce mortality from gastroschisis in low-resource settings and investigating a wider selection of congenital anomalies for further interventional studies
• Informing the knowledge gap of implementation of the World Health Organisation Surgical Safety Checklist in low resource settings
• Development of a three delays framework rapid trauma healthcare system evaluation applicable to low- and middle-income countries
• Understanding the health seeking behaviour of patients with surgical illnesses in a semi-urban setting in Sierra Leone
• Surgical Health System Strengthening in Western Area of Sierra Leone
• “Doing ourselves out of a job” - The Desire for Sustainable and Lasting Impact: Exploring the relational dynamics and networks through which sustainability is enacted by Mercy Ships with local decision makers