CARIBBEAN NEUROSURGICAL INITIATIVE (CNI)
Helping The Caribbean Community
With this initiative, our goal is to promote great opportunities for those in need. With access to the right resources, people can become empowered by their own abilities and gain the confidence to fulfill their potential. Learn more about our work by getting in touch with our team today.
CARIBBEAN NEUROSURGICAL INITIATIVE
The Caribbean Neurosurgical Initiative (CNI) is a project designed to improve neurosurgical care within the Caribbean nations through the sharing of intellectual, technical, and structural efforts while leveraging the political unity of the community. Furthermore, CNI can serve as the pilot program for surgical system strengthening as well as a key component of pandemic preparedness.
The Problem
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 90% of deaths from traumatic brain injury occur in middle to low-income countries such as the ones in the Caribbean.
The Caribbean is a chain of islands and cays that currently does not have the capacity to provide each citizen with equitable access to timely neurosurgical care. Currently, there are 3.5 million CARICOM residents living outside the recommended 4-hour access zone to a facility with neurosurgical capacity. Furthermore, there is roughly 1 neurosurgeon per 600,000 persons in CARICOM. This means that many urgent or emergent neurosurgery cases in the region will not make it to the hospital in time or, if they do, there may not be anyone there to treat them. Unfortunately, these common scenarios result in permanent neurological damage or death.
“There are some islands within the Caribbean that have literally no neurosurgeons.” - Dr. Susheel Wadhwa (Neurosurgeon at Doctor’s Hospital, Nassau).
Our Solution
The Caribbean Neurosurgical Initiative (CNI) is implementing solutions to solve the issue of neurosurgical disease across the Caribbean. Below are the steps that we are taking to ensure residents of the Caribbean have equitable access to quality and timely neurosurgical care.
Improving Public Policy - We aim to promote government engagement and facilitate ongoing support for neurosurgery as a strategic national priority.
Develop Clinical Practice - We aim to establish a sustainable framework for the sharing of best practices, sharing of clinical knowledge and promotion of novel modalities to treat a variety of neurosurgical diseases.
Build Research and Education Capacity - We aim to facilitate collaboration in understanding the regional neurosurgical disease burden, catalyze organically produced research, and expand neurosurgical coverage through educational tools devoted to task shifting of frontline healthcare workers