Advancing Open-Access Education for the Surgical Team Worldwide: The Development and Rollout of the United Nations Global Surgery Learning Hub (SURGhub).

PROBLEM: Training and professional development programs for surgeons, anesthetists, obstetricians, and perioperative nurses in low-resource settings are often constrained by lack of access to appropriate training materials. Potential learners looking to access online content are faced with internet connectivity issues, difficulties in finding and accessing resources, resources that are inappropriate for their context and training, and opaque content quality control processes.

APPROACH: The United Nations Global Surgery Learning Hub (SURGhub) was launched on June 28, 2023 to address this need. SURGhub curates high-quality surgical, anesthetic, obstetric, and perioperative nursing e-learning courses and makes them freely available on one integrated online platform, optimized for low-bandwidth settings. It is a product of the global surgery community, powered by over 200 volunteers and anchored in the United Nations.

OUTCOMES: In little over 18 months since its launch, SURGhub has enrolled 11,451 registered learners from 190 countries. Fifty-five percent of users are based in low- or lower-middle income countries. Learners can access 76 interactive e-learning courses, provided by 20 different institutions. Median course user rating is 4.6/5.

DISCUSSION: SURGhub is addressing the needs of underserved surgical learners through innovative, participatory technological solutions. To address the unmet need, SURGhub must expand its educational offering, including through the addition of new content types, personalized learning, and increased provision of content in languages other than English. The translation of SURGhub educational content into improvements in clinical practice and patient outcomes must be measured.