gSource, LLC is pleased to announce a fourth donation of their surgical instruments to the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS), a 501c3 nonprofit organization. The donated instruments, valued at $5, 730, will be provided to the FOCOS Orthopedic Hospital in Accra, Ghana, for use in orthopedic procedures to help alleviate musculoskeletal problems including complex spine and pediatric orthopedic disorders. To date, gSource has donated instruments valued at $25, 400. Surgical instruments are in need as FOCOS hopes to complete more than 150 surgeries in 2014.
gSource Donates Instruments to Ghanaian Orthopedic Hospital
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“Once again we are pleased to be able to donate gSource instruments to the FOCOS Orthopedic Hospital in Ghana. It gives us great satisfaction to know our donation provides the FOCOS volunteer surgeons with the finest instruments to perform the corrective orthopedic surgeries needed by their patients in order that they may live a life free of pain and incapacitating disability, ” commented Gerd Billmann, president of gSource in the April 28, 2014 news release.
Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, M.D. is the founder and president of FOCOS and the chief emeritus of the Scoliosis Service at Hospital for Special Surgery. He told OTW, “Instruments donated by gSource are used in complex spine surgical procedures at the FOCOS Hospital in Ghana, West Africa. Resources are very limited and the cases are very complex requiring sophisticated equipment. gSource instruments are durable to withstand the wear and tear of extreme use and conditions at FOCOS.
Asked about their instrument needs for the next year, Dr. Boachie-Adjei commented to OTW, “We expect to perform around 200 surgeries at the FOCOS Orthopedic Hospital over the next year. It is difficult to predict our exact instrument needs as this will vary depending upon the complexity of the surgeries performed. Some instruments can be re-used while others are only good for one procedure. Our main focus right now is to expand our repertoire of tools—we have thousands of instruments but many are duplicates of the same tool, and much of our inventory is not of high quality. Thanks to the support of gSource, we have been able to begin to expand our instrument list and have replaced old, outdated tools with top of the line quality.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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