Definition Health is proud to announce that part of their total digital surgical solution – initially developed for patients in the NHS & private hospital sector – is now being deployed by the Gam Med Charity (Gambia Medical UK Partnership) in The Gambia.
The Gambia lies in West Africa and is the smallest country within mainland Africa, with a population of 2.1 million people. By western standards, healthcare provision is extremely limited. Most secondary healthcare is provided in the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) in the capital, Banjul.
Many patients with injuries use traditional medicine and healers. Fractures are often bound with sticks and go on to malunite resulting in significant permanent deformity. The resulting deformities would pose a significant orthopaedic challenge to reconstruct the limb in the western world, let alone in The Gambia. Adding to this challenge, many patients will travel over one hundred miles to EFSTH with these injuries without an initial consultation or appointment – often leading to overwhelmed clinics, delayed treatment and in many cases, disappointment for patients.
In 2018 Dr Kebba Marenah was employed as the country’s first Gambian Orthopaedic Consultant. Dr Marenah completed his medical training in the UK, including his Orthopaedic Registrar training in Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (BSUH).
Dr Marenah led the Orthopaedic arm of the West African College of Surgeons Outreach programme to The Gambia. He and two Orthopaedic Consultants from BSUH (Mr James Gibbs & Ms Lisa Leonard) performed surgery and taught in EFSTH for a week.
Out of that trip, Gam Med was formed; the idea being that UK healthcare professionals would continue to give long-term help and support to Dr Marenah, in his ambition to raise the standards of hospital treatment in The Gambia.
Each year, James and a group of NHS surgeons, anaesthetists, radiologists & physiotherapists spend a week working and operating on a wide range of conditions. These volunteers include Definition Health’s Medical Director and Co-Founder, Dr Rosie Scott.
During the most recent Gam Med trip in March 2022, Dr Marenah has been working with Dr Scott to provide access and training to the Definition LifeBox system in Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital, as well as five other satellite hospitals throughout The Gambia.
The use of Definition LifeBox will enable remote care, monitoring and planning for patients between Dr Marenah at EFSTH and the satellite hospitals. Where needed, information can be uploaded for teams in the UK to view and offer remote assistance to the Gambian clinical teams in diagnosis and treatment plans for patients.
“Wherever you are in the world-tech makes a positive difference to people’s lives and interactions with healthcare professionals. Our digital platform allows them now to record conditions and treatment as well as monitor patients from a distance which saves some patients a journey of over a 100miles. It also means digital adoption in the Gambian healthcare system will be accelerated – true progress. I am immensely proud to be working with the Gam Med team”
-Sandeep Chauhan, CEO and Co-Founder of Definition Health
For more information on Definition Health’s Total Surgical Solution please visit definitionhealth.co.uk or email hello@definitionhealth.com
For more information about Gam Med, or to offer support, please email James Gibbs at jamesrgibbs@gmail.com (UK Charity number: 191320)
