How can we advance global pediatric care to reach children in the most underserved regions?

This episode tackles that pressing question while highlighting the vital role of partnerships in overcoming healthcare challenges. We dive into the transformative work of World Pediatrics, which is dedicated to ensuring that children in low-resource areas receive essential medical care. With insights from Andrea Ahonen, Mallory Trusty, and Kate Corbett, we explore significant changes within the organization, including their recent rebranding efforts and a shift towards empowering local healthcare systems. Their focus on holistic care not only addresses immediate medical needs but also fosters sustainable healthcare solutions for the future.

Takeaways:

• The global pediatric care landscape requires innovative solutions to overcome barriers in underserved regions.
• World Pediatrics emphasizes partnerships that enhance healthcare systems while increasing local capacity for pediatric care.
• Transforming pediatric healthcare involves not just treating patients but empowering local providers through training and resources.
• The rebranding of World Pediatrics reflects their commitment to long-term sustainable healthcare solutions, not just temporary projects.
• Stories like Tahjana's highlight the critical need for urgent surgical interventions in low-resource settings.
• Orthopediatrics' partnership with World Pediatrics illustrates the importance of collaboration in providing comprehensive care for children globally.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• World Pediatrics
• Orthopediatrics
• Nemours Children's Hospital
• Doctors Without Borders
• Shriners Children's Hospital

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A huge thank you to OrthoPediatrics for sponsoring this episode! OrthoPediatrics is a medical device company helping children whose lives have been impacted by orthopedic conditions. To learn more about OrthoPediatrics, visit them on the web at orthopediatrics.com!

A portion of this sponsorship was donated to World Pediatrics to amplify the work they do for children all around the world!

How can we advance global pediatric care to reach children in the most underserved regions? And what role do partnerships play in overcoming the healthcare challenges that they face? Today's episode dives into these important questions.

If you've ever wondered how organizations like world Pediatrics ensure children in low resource areas receive the medical care that they desperately need, you're in for a fascinating discussion. Before we get into it, I want to mention last week's throwback episode featuring Vafa Akavan, the CEO of World Pediatrics.

If you haven't had a chance to listen to that yet, I highly recommend checking it out. It offers a great overview of the organization's mission and their incredible global impact.

Since that conversation, World Pediatrics has a undergone some major transformations.

To talk through these changes, I'm joined by three amazing guests, Andrea Ahonen, who was senior vice president of market development at the time of recording, Mallory Trusty, vice president of Op experience at orthopediatrics and Kate Corbett, senior program director for the US Region at World Pediatrics together well cover their rebranding, the powerful partnerships driving their work, and the challenges of creating sustainable pediatric healthcare in underserved communities. Make sure you're subscribed to the podcast, leave a five star review, and share this episode with someone who might find it valuable.

Before we dive in, I'd also like to thank orthopediatrics for sponsoring this episode. Orthopediatrics is a medical device company dedicated to helping children affected by orthopedic conditions.

You can learn more about them@orthopediatrics.com more on that later. Andrea, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. This is a really timely episode to talk about world Pediatrics.

I want to talk about all of the crazy and amazing changes that world Pediatrics has done in the last year. And that's crazy cause, you know, twelve months, so many things have happened.

I have Andrea here with me and I wanted you to just kind of briefly introduce yourself. What do you do for world Pediatrics?

First of all, thanks so much for having me thrilled to be back here a year later.

And to build upon everything that WaFfa shared in your conversation last year, we've undergone a lot of change, a lot of exciting and transformational change for our organization year, including a rebrand which those of you in the marketing and branding world know how much that takes, a whole new website, a lot of change and how we communicate what we do. You know, what we do is incredibly complex, and yet we know we have to be able to communicate it in a straightforward and easy to understand way.

Therein lies a challenge for us, and it was a really fascinating exercise over the last year to hear what so many of our stakeholders and really try to bring that into the essence of what we do.

I do want to ask, just for the audience members, can you give a little bit of an overview?

Absolutely.

So, our mission is to heal children in less time in the world by transforming access to advanced pediatric care. There are over 1.7 billion children in the world, mainly from low resource countries, who lack access to even basic surgical care.

The death rates from lack of access to surgical care are greater than the death rates of HIV AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And so this is truly a global health crisis, particularly in the pediatric realm. Pediatric care is highly specialized, highly nuanced.

There lack resources for that kind of care in the world.

The reasons for the challenges for children to receive care vary from country to country, region to region, and they are as vast as the countries in which we work.

So it's incredibly the obstacles, the way we overcome those obstacles have to be very intentionally crafted and developed to meet the particular needs and challenges of that country, and sometimes even that region of the country.

So again, it's a highly complex situation and something that is also high resource, as in it takes a lot of funding, takes a lot of training and education. Again, pediatric trained specialists often require years more training than their counterparts who treat adults well.

I mean, it makes sense, right? Pediatric patients are constantly growing and changing, and it's so hard to keep up with that.

Can you explain or give us a little bit of a visual or paint a picture of what world pediatrics was like one year ago to the changes that have been made?

Sure. Absolutely.

At that point in time, we had learned a great deal on how to effectively deliver care.

At that point in time, our programs were relatively and mostly focused on care delivery, as in the mechanisms of care being surgical and advanced care teams, pediatric care teams traveling from the US to other countries to provide surgical diagnostic care, and then the most complex cases being referred to other countries, mainly the US, whereby those children that could not receive care in their home countries through our teams, came up for surgical care. That was primarily what we did. And then Covid happened.

And not only was the healthcare industry inside the US and outside the US completely upended as was travel, as was the health care, the healthcare workforce.

We like to say it was the perfect storm for us because we could not then get our fantastic pediatric medical volunteers from the US to these countries. We couldn't get children from these countries to the US. All of a sudden, barriers existed that we didn't have before.

And unfortunately, because of the rates at which children are being diagnosed and dealing with so many complex congenital conditions, but also, you know, accidents and other traumatic injuries and such that we deal with, because as I'm sure you recall, we are in over 20 different medical subspecialties, from cardiac care to neurosurgery, plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery and many others. We had to figure out a different way to reach these children and not let them suffer. And many would die without surgical intervention.

And so that really inspired us to think of how we could get them care in different ways in their home countries, and really was the catalyst for what we now consider to be our three modes of impact versus it being primarily care delivery. We look at care being about delivery of care.

So again, you know, we still are making sure the kids here and now, today, get the care they need, but empowering care, so that is whereby we are removing a barrier or providing what is needed for kids to get care in their home countries or home regions by local providers. In some cases it's a financial barrier, in some cases it's education and training. So it's a lot of extensive training.

All of our teams that are traveling abroad. So this past year, I believe 80 teams travels to partner countries.

Every single one of those teams includes a training and educational component so that they are not operating in isolation. They are coming in and working side by side, shoulder to shoulder with medical providers in country.

And then the last motives impact being transformation of the healthcare system. So we are really looking forward facing on our vision being we want this pediatric healthcare system to look different in 10, 20, 50 years.

We can only deliver care in so many ways and if that's all we focus on, we're not solving the problem. So really that transformation of care is what's more sustainable and what is also a harder nut to craft.

Right, right. But it's so much more sustainable because you're building capacity in these different clinics. I think that's what this whole rebrand is all about.

Yeah, I think we realize not only the impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of getting kids to care closest to home is typically more efficient and cost effective, but it also is a huge difference for that child and that family to be able to be close to their support network and their support system when they're undergoing something so stressful and difficult.

I always think of, I'm a mom of four, and I think of how much trust these parents put into us when they are getting on a plane, just them and their child, and traveling to another country where they may or may not speak the language, and they're just being told, we can get the care your child needs. Many their very first time being outside of their village or their country, some have not even ever been in a car or a plane before or on a highway.

So it's really, it's a very jarring experience in many ways. And so if they can get care closer to home, that of course, benefits the child and the family tremendously.

And then at the same time, that helps increase that country's ability to provide that care and build capacity.

You know, again, if we are going to have a different situation, if these numbers are going to have significant impact, it's not going to happen by just one child being treated at a time.

We've got to look at really systemic change, and that includes significant training and resource development, but it also includes a lot of financial transition.

And how does it look that this funding model organizationally, probably 80% of our funding is sourced through us based donors and institutions and such.

And so in addition to how we're shifting the healthcare capacity abroad, we're looking to help build greater ability to connect funding opportunities to the healthcare systems abroad, too.

So we now have fundraising staff in countries that are building donor interested donor bases and corporate partners in those countries who are interested in supporting their children in their country get the health care they deserve. So in all ways, you know, we really are focusing on this transformation, and it's not. It's not something that's going to happen overnight.

We know that hit our own obstacles that don't work the way we think they're going to work or hope they're going to work.

And so what I'm so proud of with this organization is that not only are we focusing on those transformational activities and empowerment of the local healthcare providers, but we are still increasing in the number of children that are actually served. We're able to do this additional work without it coming at the cost of not being able to treat as many children.

We will see about a 35% growth in our funding year over year.

Every year. You're increasing 35% the last two years?

Two years running, yep. Since we've been under this strategic plan, we just wrapped up our second year of our three year strategic plan.

In both years, we've seen tremendous growth.

So that's exciting and also a way that we can get in front of other significant players in the global health industry, those who really have the means and the interest in making that sustainable, transformational change.

I just love that. I think that's another reason why. I mean, it's not just a project, right? It's like a full. A full on.

Yeah.

At that time, we had acquired a smaller organization in Missouri, and the two organizations came together, and at that time, leadership decided to rebrand. And the name chosen was World Pediatric Project.

And over the last, well, now 13 years, as we grew and developed these partnerships and the network of care, when we say we deliver care, it is a total network of providers of healthcare systems, of government support from many different countries. This is certainly not done in isolation, and singularly, it is completely a network.

But we've delivered or we've built trust and a lot of relationship over that time to where these entities could see that they knew we were going to, to follow through on our word and we were going to leave any situation that we encountered better than we found it. We realized what we were doing was not temporary. This was something long term and incredibly needed.

There are not a lot of organizations in our space in pediatric global surgery, even fewer that are in multispecialty. There are certainly a few that are very well known that do plastic surgery only or cleft lip palate only.

Or there's relief organizations like Doctors Without Borders who go into war torn or post disaster natural disaster areas and help relieve some of the immediate needs. But what we do is long term. It's not relief based, it's continual, and it's multispecialty.

And so we knew we needed, you know, what we're doing is very needed in the space. And so we just felt like it was time to evolve beyond a project because our work had already done that.

The word project, when we would ask people, one of the things that people would say was, it sounds temporary. It sounds like there's a start and an end, and then you move on. And we knew that that was not at all where our organization was headed.

And so that was what really prompted the rebrand. And luckily, we had two other great words in there, world pediatrics, so we didn't have to go far.

Yeah.

And it's been a very natural transition in that time period as well.

And we've had such positive feedback regarding the rebrand and how we're talking about what we're doing and, of course, all the visual components that come with the rebrand as well.

Yeah, and I can totally see the difference, too. I've been on the newsletter for a while, too, and then, you know, just poking around on the website, it's looking awesome.

There's one story that I keep hearing over and over again, which has, in effect, told the story of world pediatrics, comprehensive approach to pediatrics. And it's about this little girl named Tajana. So I'll let you tell the story.

Yeah, I would be honored. I. As part of my role, I work primarily in the marketing, communications, and development space.

As senior vp of marketing development, I do get an opportunity to travel with our teams. We had almost 80 teams coming from the US going to partner countries in the last year. I was with a team in January in Belize.

We were in the southern region of Belize, a very rural area that has access to a regional hospital. It does have a few ors in it, but it's relatively basic in its ability to deliver care. And those kids certainly don't have access to pediatric care.

There's actually no pediatric trained surgeons of any specialty in the entire country, Belize. So this is a plastic surgery team that's been traveling there for a number of years, led by doctor Howard Krein out of Philadelphia.

Unfortunately, two of the physicians had been delayed coming out of Cleveland due to weather. And so we had Doctor Krein and his amazing fellow doctor McCann there, and they saw, I believe, 78 patients that day.

Wow.

What's amazing always strikes me is how patient and grateful all of these children and parents are to be there. And even if they're the 78th patient, they are so thankful to have the opportunity to see the physicians and the team.

And so right away when we got there, there was a very small newborn baby who was struggling to breathe. You know, I am not a medical professional. I'm around it enough to know some terminology, but like I said, I'm a mom.

And you could tell that she was really struggling to breathe. She looked very discontent.

And what I mean by that, not crying, but just like she was way more alert and kind of on edge than a newborn baby would normally be like, she was just, again, kind of on guard.

And she was very small and she had been losing weight since birth, I think, at this point in time, which was shocking to us, she was actually nearly two months old and she was, I think, six pounds, and she had been losing weight. And so it was very concerning. The family had seen some sort of growth pop out of her throat or out of her mouth a few different times.

Mom had a few pictures and video of it and it looked almost like a second tongue is how it was described, but it wasn't visible all the time. And when the t. You know, when we looked at it, when the physician looked in her mouth, literally in the hallway, you couldn't see anything.

And because of how small she was and, you know, obviously struggling, they bumped her first. And the team saw her first and decided they were going to do surgery on her the next day.

And really primarily exploratory because they really did not know at this point in time what they were dealing with. So first thing the next morning, the team, I believe it was afternoon, they had a few other patients that went first.

They were getting their groove in.

And then when they did bring that patient back to Jhana, there was a mask that looked at that point in time like it was somewhat blocking her esophagus, which would be preventing her from proper nutrition, perhaps preventing her from being able to breathe well.

But because of the lack of different instrumentation and devices that the team has there in this regional hospital, they weren't able to see her airway and everything as well being she was so tiny, you know, she was less than seven pounds. It was very evident the anatomy in her throat, in her vocal cords and other associated areas was not normal.

And so the decision was made to get her to care in the US. They knew that something was not right and she likely needed really urgent surgical intervention.

That day, Doctor Krein was making some phone calls in between cases reaching out. Our local Belize staff team started reaching out and our team here in the US to hospitals and to surgeons that might be able to help.

Within 36 hours, Doctor Krein had connected us with doctor EJ Caterson at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware. At this point in time, we had never worked with Nemours.

We have a hospital network of 20 or more hospitals in the US, but we'd never worked with Nemours. We'd never worked with Doctor Caderson. And he said, you know, we'll do it. We'll take this case. The wheel got in motion, of course.

That includes necessary government support from the Belize Ministry of Health to the US embassy in Belize. This mom was 19 years old herself. It's her oldest child. She didn't have a passport. Of course the baby didn't have a passport.

So in order to get expedited passports and visas, that is incredibly complex, typically. And our amazing team in Belize was able to get that done in literally a couple days.

What?

Yeah. They have proven time and time again the worth and importance of this work. And we've always followed through with our word.

And so our amazing team in Belize, Milagro, Candice and Faye, were able to get mom and baby Tajana all the paperwork that they needed. Many folks don't know that in a lot of countries, you can't just book a flight to the US and hop on a plane and come here.

You have to have a visa before you can step foot on a plane to come to the US. And so this is a lot more complex of a process than you know.

At the same time, one of the nurses who was on this trip with us, there were four surgeons and then six nurses, an anesthesiologist and two crnas completing this team. One of the nurses had called her mom and was telling her about this amazing case. And the mother said, I want to help.

The mom covered all of this baby and her mom's flights to come to the US. And we were able to network with the Ronald McDonald house near the hospital.

They've an amazing partner and we have partnerships with their houses all over the country for our kids. So they made a spot for mom to stay while baby was going to be hospitalized. And then the most.

Well, it's all remarkable, but one of the pieces of this puzzle that was just so unbelievable was within four days after this baby was first seen by our team, a neonatologist and two NICU nurses from Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware. The very same hospital that had agreed to take this case came down to Belize in order to provide training.

We have a global health program that gives neonatal care skills training for nurses and physicians in countries where they don't have extensive skills. That team was in Belize while this is all happening.

And the day they were going to be leaving a week later was the day that we were sending Tajana and her mom home. They could not travel independently because of how tenuous her breathing was.

We knew we needed to have a medical escort to make sure that there was no respiratory distress on the trip. And this doctor and nurse happened to be going back home to the Philadelphia airport, again, to the very same hospital.

No connection, of course, to our knowledge, in how this hospital was selected. And so that neonatologist and nurse were able to accompany mom and baby up to Nemours, immediately brought her to the NICU to be assessed.

A lot of extensive testing, of course, being done.

Within a couple days, she was in the OR, and they uncovered and found about a seven or eight inch esophageal polyp that was connected to the very back of her tongue.

And it would flip down inside the esophagus so it couldn't be seen, but it was almost completely blocking her esophagus, meaning where she was able to ingest nutrition, and then it would occasionally kind of flip out, and so it would then restrict her breathing. And they'd never. And these physicians had never seen anything like this.

So it was, again, it was unbelievable that this little baby was dealing with this. Once this was removed, they were able to do some reconstructive work in the other areas of her anatomy that was not correctly formed.

And within days, she was gaining weight.

And, wow.

I mean, it was the photos, you know, the little plump cheeks, and she started to get rolls on her arms. I mean, it was unbelievable to see what a transformation she made in just a few days.

And even our nurses that had been with us on the team trip in Belize, when they got home, they were collecting warm clothes for mom to bring to her, because she's from Belize, it's seventies, eighties, all year long. She had literally a pair of open toed shoes, and she's going to the Philadelphia area in January.

And so they brought all sorts of warm coat and clothes and boots and everything to her to spend time with her. It was a familiar face, and so it was just incredible to see the whole community and world pediatrics network support her and support the baby.

Tajana is doing a amazing. She's growing. We love getting updates from mom to see how much she's filling out and developing.

And again, that I described that look, and I almost think of it almost as that this poor baby was in a perpetual state of panic. Not being able to breathe properly and not being nourished. And so to see her sleeping peacefully, you know, was just an unbelievable transformation.

And again, you know, it was nothing short of divine, how all of these pieces lined up. What's amazing being a part of this work is this kind of thing happens all the time.

You know, we really, again, building those networks with ministries of health and governments and us embassies and airlines and hospital systems and doctors and nurses and all of the people that make this work possible means that this is something that we are able to replicate because of this work that we do and our reputation in the industry. So we're incredibly grateful and honored to be able to do this on behalf of the kids that we serve and their parents.

You know, again, so appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about it.

Yeah, I absolutely love that story. It just completely showcases how world pediatrics is just so dedicated to closing the loop.

You know, you could just be a mission to deliver care, but then it's like, oh, we need a visa, we need a plane ticket. We need this and that.

And for your organization to really focus on all of those things to make sure that this child gets the care that she needs, amazing.

It's truly my honor to be part of this unbelievable mission and, you know, work alongside people that are so dedicated. It's humbling, and I'm just honored to do it. So thank you so much for inviting us to chat with you today.

And we'd love people to learn more about us@worldpediatrics.org and get involved in any way that they have interest.

World pediatrics does incredible work, and you might be wondering how they make such a big impact. As Andrea mentioned, they focus not just on providing care, but on supporting patients throughout the entire care cycle. That's huge.

The real key to their success lies in the strong partnerships they've built over the years, partners who not only offer financial backing, but also share a passion for this vital work. One of these partners is orthopediatrics, the amazing sponsor for today's episode.

Orthopediatrics is a medical device company dedicated to improving the lives of pediatric orthopedic patients worldwide. In the next few minutes, you'll hear from Mallory, trustee, vice president of op experience at Orthopediatrics.

She'll be sharing why this partnership means so much to their team. Here's Mallory. Thanks so much for being here. I know that you have a very, very special partnership with World Pediatrics.

Why do you think orthopediatrics partnership with World Pediatrics is so special?

Well, thank you for having me, and thank you for inviting orthopediatrics to be a part of this.

You know, I think we were so lucky in finding an organization like world Pediatrics because they are so closely aligned with our cause of helping kids all over the world.

We've been partnering with world Pediatrics for over seven years now, providing implants and instrument systems for them to take on medical missions and helping children in the developing world, as well as providing financial support.

And it's a really remarkable organization that is so closely aligned with what we do in trying to advance healthcare for children all over the world, especially those who don't have access to appropriate care in their home countries.

Do you think that this partnership with World Pediatrics has changed the lives of employees at orthopediatrics, or even, you know, the viewpoints of employees?

Yeah, absolutely.

One of the things that I'm most proud of at Op is our culture and all of the brilliant folks that we have who are committed to advancing our cause every day.

And our partnership with World Pediatrics is a perfect example of that, because not only do we give from a corporate perspective, but every year, our employees donate out of their pockets, out of their paycheck, to a fundraising campaign for world Pediatrics.

And so every belly button in the company really can feel like they're connected to our charitable giving and the work that we do in partnership with World Pediatrics. And in addition to that financial support, we actually send some of our associates on medical missions with world Pediatrics.

So it's a really fantastic and firsthand opportunity for a lot of our folks to see the work that we're doing and to interact with these children, with their parents, with healthcare professionals around the world.

I have had the privilege of serving on a few of those medical missions, and it really is a life changing experience when you can see firsthand the work that we do and the lives that we impact every single day. And I know so many of my colleagues have appreciated the opportunity to do that.

And it really is life changing, not just for us, but for those kids and their families all over the world.

Amazing. It's easy to say that partnerships are important for making an impact, because they are.

But what truly matters are the stories that emerge from these collaborations, like the one between orthopediatrics and world pediatrics.

So in this final segment, Kate Corbett, senior program director of world Pediatrics US region, shares how their partnership with orthopediatrics goes way beyond financial support, through countless stories, like the one of a boy named Jose who suffered from a severe case of scoliosis. Kate, I think I just want to start out by asking you a little bit about what you do for world Pediatrics.

Yeah, I've been with world Pediatrics for 20 years, actually. This.

Wow.

Yeah. A long time.

Yeah.

And so my main focus is connecting children who can't be helped in their home countries through our various programs or in the region where they reside with partner hospitals in the US. These are usually the most complex cases, necessitating more resources than are available in their home countries.

Amazing. And how did you get into that role?

Well, it's really how we started here with our office here and in our work is noting the inequities of care, knowing that we have the medical resources that others do not, and then being able to connect other moms and children with the care that my child received became an early passion. And I'd say that delivery mode of care is where we started as an organization of just can we help children receive the care that they do not have?

And then from there, it just kept building and building to not just that one child at a time, but looking at the whole community and working towards more empowering and transforming where we're at now with our depths of work in the regions where we have most of our work, in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Earlier on in this episode, you know, I spoke with Andrea, and we spoke about how now it's kind of the streamlined process of bringing partners and bringing the child to wherever they need to get care and then having it kind of full circle. And it's so interesting to me.

But, you know, when it comes to partnerships, partnerships are so important, I think, for nonprofits and especially like an organization like world pediatrics that is working with children all around the world.

Orthopediatrics is one organization that really put in their dollars and then go in an extra step to making sure that world pediatrics is fully supported in that aspect. So I want to ask, how did that partnership with orthopediatrics come about? And can you talk about how it's affected the reach of world pediatrics?

Yeah, sure.

I mean, partnerships are vital, and the only way we're able to help so many children, we call it our global network of care, because it takes so many partners in the US and the regions where we work to carry out our mission to not only heal children like we were talking about healing the children one time, one child at a time, but advancing pediatric care.

He was also a closer advisor at the time to orthopediatrics in the very earliest days of their company. So knowing one of the barriers to care for these kids who live in under resourced countries is the implant.

So, you know, you need the surgeon, you need the medical personnel, the or, but you also need, especially in orthopedic surgery, you need those vital implants for this degrees to happen and be successful. So Doctor Gordon was the introduction to orthopediatrics, and it was such an extraordinary fit from the beginning.

We have a similar mission, passion to help children with their surgery needs, specifically orthopedic. And then they just made us a perfect fit as partners, which we been able to grow significantly over the years.

They are waiting for one of our programs, either a sponsorship for a local surgeon to help them, or perhaps come to the United States for complex care. So just about half of those are orthopedic patients. So that includes kids with upper and lower extremity issues as well as kids with spine issues.

So that shows you, because we work with so many specialties, the fact that orthopedic patients take up over half of that list, just how prevalent the need is in the countries we work with. So most of these children have congenital conditions, although we do see kids with deformity stemming from trauma.

So one of the ways we reach and provide care for so many of these kids is through our diagnostic and surgical teens. And orthopediatrics plays an integral and vital role in those programs.

By providing the implants for the surgeries, we've been able to grow the number of teams that we send to our partner countries because you can't have the team without the implants, it's all the different pieces of the puzzle. They also support us fiscally with their employee campaign.

They're this holistic partner that not only helps with the in kind donation or which is the implants, but also through their fiscal support of our organization over the years.

So, again, increasing the number of teams, increasing the number of children that were able to help here in the United States as well, those most complex cases, they've really just helped us grow in every way regarding our orthopedic program and healing children sooner, increasing the number of children we serve.

Yeah, I think that's so important because I'm an engineer, biomedical engineer myself, and it's quite funny, because when I reached out to orthopediatrics to talk about this, I told them, you know, I used to work right down the road from you guys. I was at depucenthes, right?

Oh, wow.

Yeah. Yes.

With a small world in Warsaw, Indiana.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. No, I'm driving down the road and it says, welcome to the orthopedic capital of the world. And I'm like, crazy.

Yeah. I really enjoyed visiting there, you know? You think what? Warsaw? Why?

Well, people always think Poland when you say Warsaw.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Dependent. It all makes sense. Yeah.

It's a pretty special place, I think another reason thing that makes them such a good fit is the passion that we all have.

Their company is so authentic and passionate about what they do, and I think that's why they don't just send implants, get that good feeling of helping, which is so important. But they also have made our work a household name in their organization, and they share the stories of the kids that we heal together.

They send representatives with our team and just. And then again, that the fiscal piece, which is so important and kind of fuels the fire of our work, they're all in to support us, so.

Wish I could replicate them over and over.

I love that. Do you have any specific stories of their team coming down to help or what specific missions that they've helped out on?

Yeah, there's many over the years, stories of healing, and then, like, the ripple effect that you see of our work, which affects children well beyond their.

Their physical state of healing.

I was thinking about that because I'm asked that question often, and one I can remember was I was standing in a clinic in Guatemala. It was a spine clinic, and kids in and out with very significant deformities. This one, again, specifically focusing on spine, mainly scoliosis.

And a little boy named Jose and his family came into the room, and mom had this look of the most intense anxiety on her face, which I later found out was because they'd been seeking help unsuccessfully for him for so long. My guess is she was preparing herself for another crushing disappointment, you know, and questions, but then being, oh, so sorry, we can't help.

But Jose, on the other hand, had this smile that filled the room. He was ten at the time. He was a bit small for his age, and he just had an ease in maturity beyond his years.

Oh, God.

And in the s would have. Yeah, it was mind boggling that he had not started seeing effects from that.

But he told me about how his favorite part was soccer, and he really kind of like, I'm just a normal kid. I have no limitations. But a child like Jose would have started treatment at a very young age with. He had what's called congenital scoliosis.

He was born with it in order to prevent significant deformity.

So Jose's case was so complex, and he needed halo gravity, traction and surgical treatment in the US that was beyond, at that point, the capabilities of our Guatemala spine program. And he has a wonderful ending to his story. Had surgery through our us referral program and is doing fantastic.

But what's so beautiful about orthopediatric support of our Guatemala spine program is beyond that one child again, at first, we focus on catching up on the backlog of patients.

The focal point being always though, the training of the local surgeons and the nurses and the other specialists, like the neuromonitoring specialists, that are needed to do a safe scoliosis surgery. That focus on training is now we're seeing the beautiful outcomes of that long term investment.

The Guatemala surgeon that is our main partner surgeon there, doctor Andres Kobar, he is now doing some of these surgeries on his own, without our help. That means it's not just when our team is there that he's able to help children, but throughout the year.

And then we continue training with our annual teams to do more complex diagnoses too, and increase the capacity of the local teams to work on their own. So, again, that knowing that kids like Jose will be treated earlier, that is so beautiful.

And more identifying, treating them earlier and preventing significant deformities such as Jose's.

But then, Guatemala is a huge country.

Of over 15 million people.

So the words getting out about our program, so those children that do come in with significant deformity, because of our partnerships, because of the work we do that is so comprehensive, we are able to help those children as well.

Absolutely love that. And I think you mentioned the word of mouth kind of thing where it's like people start to know. And in places like Guatemala, Facebook, all.

The social media, that's huge. In the countries where we work, they.

Have all of that, the smartphones and all of that. And then also they found a place that can work. And then one mom tells another mom, which then they tell another mom, and then it just.

And then it just becomes a self licking lollipop, in a sense. Right. It's like, as long as you have the resources that are being provided, then, wow, that's an amazing. Yeah, I love that.

And we have staff. You know, another vital piece of partnership is the fact and how we work.

We always talk about being shoulder to shoulder with our partners, and that is in our medical communities where we work, too.

And having staff on the ground is.

Just, I think, what sets us apart a lot and enables us to do this depth of work because they're on the ground.

Forging partnerships with the public and private hospitals, we try to do most of our work in the public sector because that's where the low income patients are anyway.

And then, you know, forging those partnerships in depth, where we work and really being on the ground and meeting the patients and getting to know the need is really extraordinary and why we are able to do the type of work that we do, which is sometimes challenging, but it's certainly worthwhile. And we've seen the long term sustainability piece really play out.

Yeah, I think it's a little bit. When you say sometimes challenging, I'm sure it's more challenging than people might think. But the work that pays off is.

Yeah, it's, like, indescribable. And, you know, children are so resilient. I'm, you know, even me visiting places like Honduras, El Salvador, even India.

It's so funny that Jose was just saying, I'm just a regular kid, you know, I just do kid things and life's great, you know, and they drill.

A halo into your head and put you in halo attraction. And the smile, you know, it just still comes. And, you know, we stub our toe in the morning and complain for the next three days, you know.

So these kids teach us a lot.

I know if you want a life lesson, go on one of these trips and just observe. That's like, just observe.

I think I want to broaden the conversation a little bit because I know that we're speaking about orthopedics specifically, but I know that world pediatrics works in so many different other specialties.

So I was wondering, could you speak on some of the other specialties that are pretty big in terms of, I guess, the roster of children, you know, that you serve, Shmur, and then maybe any other type of partnerships that world pediatrics kind of hopes to forge for the future?

Sure. World pediatrics main focus, of course, is in the global pediatric surgery realm, and we work with most pediatric specialties outside of oncology.

So that includes kids needing cardiac surgery, plastic and craniofacial, general surgery, neurosurgery, urology, ophthalmology.

So all the pediatrics have specialty, plus the ancillary services such as complementing our orthopedic programs with physical and occupational therapies and our cleft lip and pellet programs with speech therapies, bracing. I mean, if you do a surgery for a child with club foot, that's another beauty about our relationship of orthopediatrics.

As they've grown their specialties and services and product line, it's been able to benefit our work as well. Yeah. So again, back to club foot.

If we do the surgery, if the.

Surgeon does the surgery on child for club foot, then we have to be able to provide the bracing as well, or they're just going to regret back to their pre surgery deformity. So that's something we feel very strong about, is really that holistic approach.

We also have a strong non surgical initiative focusing on neonatal care training, which empowers local medical communities to take care of those tiny newborns to not only survive, but to thrive and minimize long term effects which happen and often come with a babies that are born preterm. So that's a really growing initiative we have as well. That's beyond what our global surgery focus and partnerships. I mean, everything I just named.

So every different specialty requires supply partnership. You will hear me over and over and everyone in the organization talking about our focus to heal more children in less time.

Right.

That's why we're here. And to build that local healthcare capacity and their ability to heal their own children closer to home, too.

So, from government entities, which are so helpful in whether it's getting supplies into the country or supporting some of our work financially, the hospitals, medical personnel, more suppliers like orthopediatrics, when we do cardiac surgery, we need also supplies. We need the patches to put on a child's hole in their heart. So all of our different work need different medical supplies.

So medical supplies, supply partners, and increasing those is very important. And then fiscal partners, I mean, we need more people to invest in our work.

That's the way we're going to reach more children sooner and address the vast inequities of healthcare around the world. So it's the whole puzzle. We can't do one without the other. And the more partners we have, the more children work on a reach. Enlist yeah.

So if you're listening to this and if you're part of a company that might align with the mission of world Pediatrics, reach out to them. See what they're all about. See if you want to partner. That could be such an amazing thing for your employees or the people that you work with.

So definitely reach out. Kate, it was such a great conversation to have. Thank you so much for telling that story about Jose.

I just love hearing, it just touches my heart whenever I hear stories like that. And so thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you, Heffel. I really appreciate it. Blake Jose are what motivates us to get up every day and work as hard as we can to help more kids.

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you'd like to learn more about today's topic and guest, head over to the show notes linked in the description of this episode.

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