• Consolata S Shayo, Julie Woodfield, Zarina A Shabhay, Chibuikem Anthony Ikwuegbuenyi, John Mtei, Boaz Yonah, Maxigama Y Ndossi, Sylvia L Massawe, Dorcas G Magawa, Hadija Mndeme, Donatila Kwelukilwa, Costansia A Bureta, Japhet Ngeregeza, Caitlin Hoffman, Halinder S Mangat, Laurent Lemeri Mchome, Roger Härtl, and Hamisi K Shabani.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Electronic address: consolatashayo@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Dec 1; 180: 425142-51.

BackgroundPostgraduate neurosurgical training is essential to develop a neurosurgical workforce with the skills and knowledge to address patient needs for neurosurgical care. In Tanzania, the number of neurosurgeons and neurosurgical services offered have expanded in the past 40 years. Training opportunities within the country, however, are not sufficient to meet the needs of residents, specialists, and nurses in neurosurgery, forcing many to train outside the country incurring associated costs and burdens. We report on the Dar es Salaam Global Neurosurgery Course, which aims to provide local training to neurosurgical health care providers in Tanzania and surrounding countries.MethodsWe report the experience of the Global Neurosurgery Course held in March 2023 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We describe the funding, planning, organization, and teaching methods along with participant and faculty feedback.ResultsThe course trained 121 participants with 63 faculty-42 from Tanzania and 21 international faculty. Training methods included lectures, hands-on surgical teaching, webinars, case discussions, surgical simulation, virtual reality, and bedside teaching. Although there were challenges with equipment and Internet connectivity, participant feedback was positive, with overall improvement in knowledge reported in all topics taught during the course.ConclusionsInternational collaboration can be successful in delivering topic-specific training that aims to address the everyday needs of surgeons in their local setting. Suggestions for future courses include increasing training on allied topics to neurosurgery and neurosurgical subspecialty topics, reflecting the growth in neurosurgical capacity and services offered in Tanzania.Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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