Our Mission
Improving health care in developing countries through sustainable education, research, and surgical programs.
Head & Neck Outreach, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It was founded in 2014 after Dr. Chad Zender and Katrina Harrill developed a collaborative program with Dr. Jeff Otiti and the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI). Their goal was to improve treatment and care of patients with head and neck diseases and train Ugandan physicians, nurses, and residents in Kampala, Uganda.
The HNO team was the first to successfully perform surgery at UCI and to date, the program has performed over 250 complex head and neck surgeries and treated more than 500 patients in clinic. Over 75 clinicians, nurses, and medical students have participated in the program, which occurs biannually in the Spring and Fall.
Education
HNO is based on a standard surgical mission model commonly practiced by humanitarian and international outreach programs. These programs have a great impact on the patients and their families, but are limited in the overall impact in a given country's health care infrastructure. Differing from the standard model, HNO incorporates a professional education component to aid local clinicians, nurses, and students in developing skills to apply long-term. Educational programs such as medical student training awards, resident sponsorship, and nursing development will help to better engage current and future generations of health care professionals. In addition to philanthropic mechanisms of support, HNO is exploring NIH educational and training grants that would be used to increase the number of new health care workers, strengthen in-country medical education systems, and build clinical and research infrastructure in developing countries.
HNO currently operates in partnership with UCI and Makerere University School of Medicine to train the next generation of Ugandan clinicians and to provide diagnosis and treatment services to a severely underserved population. With only two formal otolaryngology residency programs available to graduating medical students in Uganda, an educational partnership is planned to support the cost of resident training and US exchange program opportunities.
Courses
Head and Neck Reconstructive Techniques (2014), Uganda Cancer Institute/Makerere University School of Medicine
Surgical Skullbase Anatomy (2015), Uganda Cancer Institute/Makerere University School of Medicine
Research
HNO seeks to establish and expand research infrastructure with international partners through basic science and clinical research projects.
Current projects include multi-site pilot studies investigating the incidence of HPV-related head and neck cancer and the development of a Ugandan data and tissue repository.
Surgery
The World Health Organization (WHO) considers surgery to be an integral part of primary health care as a preventative strategy and cost-effective method for addressing many health challenges in developing and low socioeconomic countries. In many of these countries, such as those in Central and East Africa, the burden of surgical disease far surpasses provided capacity. In Uganda, a country of 37 million people, the ration of surgeons for the population is 7 to 1 million. As a result, the majority of the population lacks access to quality surgical care.
Head and Neck cancer affects individuals worldwide, with approximately 600,000 new cases diagnosed globally each year. In countries like Uganda, without health care systems that are able to provide access to radiation therapy, surgical resection and reconstruction is the only treatment option. Having only 30 ENT specialists in the country and only one fellowship-trained ENT oncology specialist, Ugandans suffering with head and neck conditions are unable to receive adequate diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
To address Uganda's discrepancy of resources, HNO established a partnership with Dr. Jeff Otiti of the Uganda Cancer Institute and became the first group to successfully perform surgeries at UCI. HNO now travels to Uganda biannually to complete two-week surgical camps, evaluating patients in clinic and performing complex head and neck surgeries. Physician referrals and word of mouth recommendations have resulted in patients traveling across Uganda as well as neighboring countries.