Nguyen teaches urology surgery techniques in Nepal in 2009
For over a decade, Hiep Nguyen, MD, FAAP has been traveling the world as part of a nonprofit surgical and education team, dedicated to improving pediatric urology in developing countries. As a pediatric urologist and director of Robotic Surgery Research and Training at Children’s Hospital Boston, Nguyen has visited countries like Nepal, Tanzania and Ghana, working with local surgeons and healthcare professionals to help them better identify and treat genitourinary problems in children before they become untreatable.
This weekend Nguyen will be leading a team of volunteer doctors and nurses to Kenya, where they will preform up to 12 urology surgeries a day. (About four times the daily average at even the busiest American hospital.) While seeing patients, Nguyen’s team will also be teaching African healthcare professionals the latest diagnosis and management techniques for pediatric urological issues so they will be better prepared to treat patients in their own practices. The following is a blog Nguyen has written in anticipation of his upcoming trip.
As a pediatric urologist, I often have people ask me, “I know you’re a doctor, but what exactly do you do?” Like in many medical fields, the jargon used to describe urology can be overly technical at times, so I usually respond by telling people that my colleagues and I are the “plumbers” of medicine. It may sound tongue in cheek, but it’s actually a pretty accurate analogy. Like plumbers we specialize in “pipes” and water flow, and as any plumber will tell you, most people don’t think about plumbing until it becomes a problem in their own house. The same holds true for urology. Clothing almost always covers any visual indication of a genitourinary tract problem—and these conditions are rarely life threatening—so many urological issues often go ignored until they become debilitating.
Luckily for patients in the United States there are many well-trained medical professionals who specialize in the care of children with genitourinary problems. And as scientific discoveries happen more and more frequently, the diagnosis and treatment for these congenital anomalies is getting better all the time. Advancements in medical and surgical interventions have evolved to the point where many children with these conditions can enjoy a life unhindered by kidney insufficiency and failure, urinary incontinence or future fertility and sexual function issues.
A medical clinic in Ghana where patients are waiting to be seen by Nguyen and his team
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said around the world. In many developing countries there are very few individuals with the appropriate training to take care of children with these conditions. In societies where resources are limited and the ability to bear children may directly affect a person’s social status, these children are often considered a burden and are shunned from their community. Even when they are fortunate enough to have some access to health care, many times they’ll receive an inappropriate diagnosis or management that then leads to greater problems.
For over 10 years I have been working with a nonprofit organization looking to help these children. International Volunteers in Urology is a group committed to making quality urological care available to people worldwide by providing medical and surgical education to healthcare professionals in developing countries. Through surgical workshops, didactics, and one-on-one education we strive to teach healthcare providers in these areas the most up-to-date diagnosis and management techniques for urological issues.
Through my work with the IVU I’ve had the very good fortune of being able to lead a team of pediatric urologists, anesthesiologists, nurses and other healthcare providers to remote parts of the world such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin and South America. This year we are going to Kenya.
In collaboration with the World Health Organization, we are going to Kisumu, a small town on the edge of Lake Victoria, to work with our Kenyan colleagues on improving the level of care available to children with debilitating genital abnormalities in their country.
Nguyen demonstrates surgery technique to a local doctor in Tanzania
Several Children’s employees will be joining me, (Richard Yu, and Kelly Kristof from Urology and Elizabeth Dixit and Marcie Alkema from Nursing) and in the upcoming weeks, we would like to share our Kenyan trip with Thrive readers.
Through blogs, pictures and videos we hope to share our experiences and let you join in the beauty and joys, as well as the trials and tribulations, of the Kenyan people. We will be traveling over 7,000 miles, but despite the distance our message is clear: No matter where you are in the world, having good “plumbing” is essential.
