Surgery resident Naomi Neo’s research findings on key potential factors contributing to the resilience of surgical care delivery in a pandemic.
The world came to a standstill during COVID-19. With all attention focused on dealing with the pandemic, the redirection of many healthcare resources caused other healthcare needs to be placed on the back burner.
Surgery was one such field.
Given the unprecedented scale and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in modern history, students from Duke-NUS Medical School planned a study that hoped to bring to light key potential factors contributing to the resilience of surgical care delivery in a pandemic, particularly in resource-constrained countries.
Naomi Huang, a recent graduate of Duke-NUS Medical School, spoke about her experiences taking part in this study, which constituted her third-year research project.
In this study, Naomi employed a qualitative study design with the intention of generating contextualised knowledge of the impact of and response to the pandemic. She aimed to capture the full spectrum of heterogenous experiences from surgical leaders around the region.
A senior pharmacist prior to her matriculation at Duke-NUS, Naomi had experiences in Global Health work through medical humanitarian trips and regional public health advocacy projects. This motivated her to pursue medicine and serve underprivileged communities. When it came for her to decide on her third year research topic, she naturally gravitated towards global surgical projects addressing issues reaching beyond Singapore.
“I especially loved the challenge of having to recognise, appreciate, and subsequently navigate the delicate nuances of cultural, social, geographical, and economic characteristics of various countries in global health work.”
And while it was hard to conduct regional research while grounded, Naomi had the help of Global Health mentors from the SingHealth International Collaboration Office and SDGHI.
“I was very fortunate to have the support of Ms Vijaya Rao from the International Collaboration Office,” said Naomi, citing the ICO’s role in identifying, establishing contact with, and garnering the support of surgical leaders in various tertiary medical centres in resource constrained countries in South and Southeast Asia. She hopes that the conclusions drawn from her research can be used to formulate hypotheses for a subsequent quantitative study which examines the effects of these responses strategies in mitigating the impacts of the pandemic on surgical care continuity.
With the paper published and Naomi now graduated and beginning her residency in surgery, the study has been a learning opportunity for her. The issue of surgical care accessibility in a pandemic landscape could be addressed by various information and communication technological aids. However, resource-constrained countries faced difficulty implementing these solutions due to the lack of digital access in certain populations. As such, many of these countries had to resort to labour-intensive methods of patient outreach in order to maintain surgical care continuity.
From this, she reflected on the importance of narrowing the digital divide – something that was repeatedly referenced while speaking with surgical leaders on the various methods their institutions employed to maintain continuity of their surgical services.
“The improvement of digital access is absolutely fundamental in bridging the gap in healthcare equity and improving healthcare accessibility in resource-constrained countries,” she explained.
The compassionate leadership that all the surgical leaders demonstrated in the time of a global crisis was especially inspiring for Naomi. In her conversations with them, it was apparent that their response strategies were guided by two main guiding principles: the prioritisation of the safety of their staff, and a commitment to uphold their duty to patients by maintaining provision of timely surgical care services.
Clear and decisive leadership, coupled with strong guiding principles, are key in navigating complex issues and the successful emergence from a global crisis, she reflects. Listening to the experiences of these leaders in surgery has also reinforced in Naomi the importance of fulfilling her duty as a physician to her patients even in the most difficult of circumstances.
“As a young clinician, I shall strive to walk in the footsteps of my predecessors while holding myself up to a similar high ethical and moral standard.”