Evaluating the impact of a virtual international global surgery conference as a means for global surgery and health education

OBJECTIVE: Global Surgery was established as a specialty in the 1980s to improve worldwide surgical care and delivery; however, despite having significant importance, a lack of exposure remains within undergraduate and postgraduate training schemes. This study aims to evaluate the impact of a free international virtual Global Surgery conference in raising interest, awareness and knowledge for medical and allied healthcare professional students, surgical trainees and surgeons worldwide. DESIGN: A free one-day international Global Surgery conference was organised in May 2021 and broadcast on a worldwide delegate online platform; there were seven keynote presentations. Registered delegates completed pre-and post-conference questionnaires. Data were collected including country of origin, training/professional level, Likert (1–5) scale ratings of conference keynote topics and VAS (0–10) scores for overall conference evaluation. Furthermore, qualitative feedback in relation to positive feedback and ideas for improvement was also invited, and in cases where multiple feedback was given, was categorised separately. SETTING: The study was undertaken by the St Andrew’s Anglia Ruskin (StAAR) Research Group, School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK. PARTICIPANTS: There were 230 registered delegates; the attendance rate was 81.7% (188/230), representing a variety of different training/professional levels from 50 countries. For attendees, the questionnaire response rate was 88.8% (167/188). RESULTS: There was a significant increase in knowledge improvement regarding six conference topics, with five achieving a median (IQR) post-conference Likert score of 5(1) and one achieving a score of 4(1) (p < 0.001). Average confidence and knowledge remained unchanged on the use of social media to access worldwide surgical education (p = 0.667). Overall, the conference received high satisfaction (9.4/10) and recommendation (9.5/10) ratings. CONCLUSION: Our findings support the concept of free Global Surgery virtual conference integration into medical and allied healthcare professional student curricula worldwide, to promote early awareness and facilitate the growth of the healthcare ‘workforce of tomorrow’.