Member Spotlight: Dr Endris Hussen Ali in Addis Ababa
At the end of March, Dr Endris Hussen Ali posted a request on InterSurgeon for equipment and fellowship opportunities for skull-base Neurosurgery. The InterSurgeon team reached out to learn more about his background and his goals through the InterSurgeon platform.
Bit of background
Dr Hussen Ali joined the InterSurgeon team from his home in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. There he trained and works as an assistant professor of Neurosurgery at the Ethiopian Federal Police Commission Referral Hospital; “Most of our cases are trauma. Bullet injuries are common. And for elective cases, we have mostly back pain patients, which is mainly degenerative disc disease. And sometimes we have a few cranial cases like pituitary adenoma and mengiomas.” The hospital is predominantly a trauma centre but they do get cancer cases too which they are ill-equipped to deal with and so invariably the patients get referred; “For low-income countries I would say our training is mainly on trauma. I personally have about 500 trauma cases operated on by my hand. So, I didn’t see the point of joining trauma surgery. We don’t have adequate skull base trained neurosurgeon in Ethiopia. The whole country population is over 130 million people and we all are general neurosurgeons. So if I can get formal skull base neurosurgeryfellowship training, I would make a significant difference in the country.”
Coming to InterSurgeon and making a request
Dr Hussen Ali started his search for extra training; “Being a neurosurgeon is not enough. We need these amazing associations so that we can improve our service both professionally and in equipment ways. Talking about my hospital, there are two neurosurgeons in the hospital. The service we give is the same. Our training is the same. And the experience is also the same.”
He had spent some time searching for fellowships opportunities when InterSurgeon came up on his web search; “It was when I saw what was posted in Intersurgeon- I got it! I thought that’s what I want to help my search for fellowships and even for equipment.”
Dr Hussen Ali decided to make a request on InterSurgeon to improve his skills to directly impact patient outcome in his country. “Spine surgery is already being served by few spine surgeons but skull base surgery is a problem in Ethiopia. We are not well trained on pituitary tumours, skull base neurosurgery so if I get the opportunity to get a skull base neurosurgery fellowship, that would be amazing and I can add this lot on the service.”
Equipment Challenges
His hospital’s limited resources are a major barrier to expanding surgical care to treat more complex cases; “ [Of equipment] We have only a trauma set now, mainly craniotomy set and laminectomy set. They are just simple sets by which we do like craniotomy, trauma craniotomy or laminectomy only so we don’t go deep. We don’t have head, scalp fix, Mayfield And we don’t have an operating microscope, which is the most important instrument that we need. And for the back pain surgery; especially for those with degenerative disc disease, cervical, spondylitic myelopathies,and spine trauma we dont have C ARM machine and fusion sets, we don’t operate on them, we just refer because we don’t have the equipment.”
Feedback on InterSurgeon
Despite these challenges, Dr Hussen Ali is optimistic and appreciative of platforms that bridge global surgical communities; “One thing I appreciate is you made it free for low-income country surgeons to join you. It’s a very important I think job that you did. We hope it’s going to help a lot of surgeons here in Africa, especially.”
Dr Hussen Ali is looking for specialist equipment and actively applying for fellowship opportunities.
If you would to contact Dr Hussen Ali, click here.
If you would like to see Dr Hussen Ali’s request, click here.
