Education & Research Programs

Physicians Training Program

Our annual Physicians’ Training Program (PTP) gives physicians from our partner countries the opportunity to expand and share their knowledge by observing and discussing complex craniofacial surgeries, attending discipline-specific medical lectures, practicing medical techniques and conducting laboratory work. This past year, 61 doctors from 22 countries attended the two-week program and three World Care Program patients were brought to the U.S. for craniofacial surgery. Anesthesia/Pediatrics participants received additional training in the American Heart Association’s Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) courses. To date, Operation Smile has brought more than 600 medical professionals to Norfolk, Va., for PTP.

World Care Program

Some children need more care than can be provided during a two-week mission. Through special sponsorships, we arrange to have a child and a guardian brought to the United States, Europe or Australia where the child receives surgery. A caring local family provides a home for them during the child’s treatment and recovery. Not only are these children given new faces, they’re given new futures, filled with promise and hope. To date, the program has treated 135 children.

Educational Exchanges and University Partnerships

Operation Smile offers educational exchange programs to in-country medical professionals through partnerships with leading medical teaching institutions. Operation Smile pairs in-country teams of physicians, nurses and allied health professionals with universities and educational institutions across the globe, training them in advanced techniques, partnering with them in research, and sharing with them the gift of treating children. These opportunities, which are coordinated and sponsored by Operation Smile, begin but don’t end with fellowships, emeritus professorships and visiting professorship programs. These partnerships ultimately result in treatment centers that take care of patients year-round. These treatment centers then become the educational resource for their own country and region.

PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
American Heart Association
Chang Gung Hospital and University
Duke University
George Washington University
The Hospital for Sick Children / University of Toronto
Southern Illinois University
University of Maryland
University of Rome
University of Southern California
Yale University

EXCHANGE DISCIPLINES
Anesthesia
Child Life Psychology
Dentistry
Nursing
Pediatrics
Plastic Surgery
Speech Pathology

Mission-Based Education

Operation Smile also offers educational opportunities during its international medical missions. From a formal medical conference, to an informal workshop on a specific skill or technique, the programs are designed to meet the needs of the facility and the healthcare workers from within the partner country. This can include donations of education resources like textbooks, CD-ROMs or videos so that education can continue year-round. Team members from the mission are selected to fulfill this educational role along with their clinical responsibilities. At times, the team includes “Guest Educators” who are internationally recognized in their fields. During a typical mission-based education program, as many as 100 in-country healthcare workers benefit.

Medical Education Programs

Sustainability begins with the international medical mission model, then moves to sustainable programs on the local level. Through education initiatives, Operation Smile’s partner countries are given the skills to treat children on their own, with their own resources, their own volunteers, their own supplies and their own medical professionals. Operation Smile tailors education programs for each partner country’s specific medical infrastructure. The education plan is the result of a collaborative analysis of that country — the number of healthcare workers present, the socio-economic status, the types of treatment currently available, its volunteer base and more.

Research - Institutional Review Board

Through Operation Smile’s Research Council, doctors and researchers are collaborating globally to improve the plight of children born with facial deformities. Operation Smile tripled the membership on its research council and is pleased to announce the creation of an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB, following stipulations of the federal government, reviews and funds selected research projects. The board, chaired by Operation Smile Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Rubin, works in conjunction with the research council.

Operation Smile is currently soliciting hospitals, universities and researchers who are interested in doing research in the cleft lip or cleft palate field and wish to join an Operation Smile mission to obtain data or want to use current data collected by the organization.

Click here to fill out the Research Application. If you have questions, please contact our education department at .

American Heart Association PALS, ACLS and BLS Certification

Operation Smile is an International Training Organization (ITO) of the American Heart Association (AHA). The program allows Operation Smile to develop training networks and provide Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) training to physicians around the world. Operation Smile is the only organization authorized by the AHA to function as a global and mobile ITO.

Programs

Patient Resources