TITLE
CLEFT SURGERY: ESTABLISHED INSTITUTION VS MISSION TRIPS
TALK INFO
This clinical and strategic session contrasts two major models of delivering cleft lip and palate surgical care:
Established Institution Model: where care is provided through permanent cleft centers or hospitals with continuous, long-term care, multidisciplinary teams, structured protocols, and follow-up that includes speech therapy, orthodontics, and psychosocial support. These centers build local capacity, train surgeons, and embed sustainable expertise in the community.
Mission Trip Model: where visiting surgical teams travel to underserved regions for short-term intensive surgical camps or missions, performing a high volume of corrective surgeries within a limited time. These missions are often organized by international charities; they provide needed services where access is limited, but raise questions about long-term follow-up, continuity of care, and sustainable impact.
The session examines how each model works, their benefits and limitations, and how they can be integrated — for example, using mission trips as catalysts for eventual development of local, permanent cleft care programs. It also covers practical considerations such as patient selection, team composition, quality standards, ethical implications, and postoperative care.
You can watch the first 8 minutes for free.
CLINICAL PATHWAY
SPEAKER
DATE
18/07/24
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this session, participants were expected to be able to:
Differentiate between institutional cleft care and mission-based surgical delivery, including structure, continuity, and care scope.
Understand the strengths of established cleft centers, such as sustainable training, long-term follow-up, and comprehensive multidisciplinary care.
Recognize the role and challenges of surgical mission trips, including logistical planning, short-term impact, and considerations for safety and quality.
Evaluate ethical and practical considerations in choosing a care model — focusing on patient outcomes, local resources, and long-term health systems impact.
Discuss strategies to bridge mission efforts with local capacity building, encouraging mission work that supports eventual institutional development and continuity of care.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Krishnamurthy Bonanthaya MBBS, MDS, FDSRCS (UK), FFDRCS (Ireland), FIBCSOMS, Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon, Smile Train Cleft Leadership Centre, Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital, Bangalore, INDIA. Dr. Krishnamurthy Bonanthaya is a graduate in dentistry from Government Dental College, Bangalore, and in medicine from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. He has post-graduate qualifications in oral and maxillofacial surgery from Mangalore University and the Royal College of Surgeons of London & Ireland. He has also published several research papers in reputed national and international journals.
Dr. Carlo Guevara is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is affiliated with Broward Health North. He received his medical degree from University of Florida College of Medicine.
Dr. Dipesh Rao is a dual qualified Maxillofacial surgeon who graduated from the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences for Dentistry and the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences for Medicine. He is trained in both Paediatric Maxillofacial Surgery and Craniofacial Surgery, and his Paediatric Maxillofacial fellowship at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Dr Rao's spectrum of work includes cleft lip and palate deformity, syndromic and non-syndromic craniosynostosis (fusion of skull growing lines), complex facial deformity requiring orthognathic correction and distraction osteogenesis and facial cosmetic procedures.
Prof. Majeed Rana is presently serving as the senior physician and deputy head of the department for Oral and Maxillofacial surgery at the University Hospital Dusseldorf. Additionally, he holds the position of Chair for the IAOMS Education Committee. His study focuses on the computer-assisted development of patient-specific implants, cancer patients' quality of life and the deployment of workflows for intraoperative 3D mapping in midface and cranial base tumor procedures.
Prof. Sabine Girod is Professor emerita of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Stanford. She trained in Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery in Germany and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard Medical School) in Boston. Her special clinical and research interests are maxillofacial trauma, corrective surgery of maxillofacial deformities, and minimally invasive Computer Aided Surgery. She is one of the co-founders of surgeON, a community of surgeons, by surgeons, for surgeons – a live and on-demand open streaming platform that offers a wide range of peer reviewed educational content specifically tailored to the needs of surgeons in Craniomaxillofacial (CMF) surgery.
CE ACCREDITATION
surgeOn is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider. ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry. surgeOn designates this activity for 1 credit hour of continuing education credits.
This event may also be accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME®) for a maximum of 1 European CME credits (ECMEC®s). Each medical specialist should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the educational activity. If you are a learner based in the U.S. or Canada EACCME credits are recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
DECLARATION
In accordance with criterion 13 of document UEMS 2023.07.rev “EACCME® Criteria for the Accreditation of Live Educational Events (LEEs)” and the Standard v. Commercial or Promotional Conflict of Interest, published by the American Dental Association Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP), all surgeON presenters sign a Conflict of Interest form to document all perceived or actual conflicts of interest for the last 3 years, whether due to a financial or other relationship. This document can be viewed at the beginning of the event or on request by emailing info@surgeon-events.org No fee, honorarium or arrangement for re-imbursement of expenses in relation to the this event has been provided to the speaker.
