S3E31 Professor Bruce Biccard | Championing Surgical Safety in Africa - An Anaesthetist's Story

Earth Cast

🎙️Season 3 | A Manifesto for Surgical Health in Africa

🎙️In this episode, @olivia_earth speaks to Professor Bruce Biccard about his personal journey to advocacy for safe surgery and anaesthesia in Africa. His work in surgical outcomes in Africa has shown him that until such time as people have access to safe surgery and health equity, any attempts to address climate change and sustainability in Africa will be futile.

Bruce Biccard is Professor and Second Chair in the Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His research interests include global surgery, surgical outcomes and perioperative medicine. He is a proponent of international collaborative research and works extensively with the African Perioperative Research Group (APORG). Their work has been published in high impact medical journals including The Lancet.

Through his work with many clinician investigators across Africa, and other leading experts in the field globally, he has written a book to bridge the gap from academics to the public to explain what could be done to change the plight of surgical health in Africa. This podcast series discusses the draft of the book. You as a listener have the opportunity to read the draft and suggest revisions to make the book more accessible to governments, civil society and communities to ensure it achieves its goal of promoting and improving surgical health in Africa.

In his spare time Bruce is an avid ultra distance cyclist having completed iconic events such as the Race Across South Africa and the Rhino Run.

🎙To follow more of Bruce’s work and the African Perioperative Research Group, and access the draft sections of the book, please visit https://asos.org.za/index.php/book.