Lifebox news – January edition

We understand you’re busy – so are we!

If you haven’t had time to check in with Lifebox lately, here’s where you can get caught up.  Welcome to the January #LifeboxNews: highlights from a busy month and links to some of the stories that caught our eye.

Last month we…

  • launched an exciting new project to optimise our pulse oximeter and neonatal probe for treating paediatric pneumonia, thanks to a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • celebrated our founder Atul Gawande’s 50th birthday by asking you to share your favourite of his books or articles, and to help us meet our Stavros Niarchos Foundation challenge grant in the #GawadeBdayGoal
  • stayed up late to read this incredible Safe Surgery Checklist Implementation Guide developed by Lifebox USA trustee Bill Berry and expert Lizzie Edmondson
  • saluted our colleagues in Uganda, who sent us two beautiful thank you letters after a donation of pulse oximeters funded by the Lifeboxes for Rio campaign
  • announced a partnership to change the future of global surgery: plans afoot with Medsin, the UK medical student global health network and their newly formed Global Surgery National Working Group
  • caught up with UK colleagues at the Winter Scientific Meeting, our co-founder the AAGBI’s sold out academic event…
  • appointed three incredible Lifebox Fellows to take the next 6 month postings in Mbarara, Uganda and Jimma, Ethiopia
  • supported safer surgery in Madagascar with oximeters and training as part of the ongoing countrywide WHO Surgical Safety Checklist implementation led by Mercy Ships
  • cheered as the Cheetahs re-unite! Our friends ran all night for Lifebox last year – and they’re doing it again.

In the news:

  • …and positive news from a negative topic as maternal mortality improves across Rwanda (BMJ Open).
  • Plus, inextricably linked to maternal health – a systematic review of surgery in the national health strategic plans of Africa (World Journal of Surgery)