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Surgical Data Science Collective (SDSC) is thrilled to announce an exciting new collaboration with George Washington University (GWU), Children’s National Hospital, and the Muhumbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) to explore how operative video analysis could transform neurosurgical training in Tanzania. This partnership seeks to improve access to neurosurgical care by fostering parity and universality of core neurosurgical skills across trainees – ultimately benefiting patients across the country.
The Critical Need to Strengthen Surgical Capacity
In a nation of over 67 million, and only 27 neurosurgeons to serve its entire population, Tanzania faces a stark shortage of neurosurgeons. Training a neurosurgeon is an intensive, years-long process, and many emerging surgeons in Tanzania do so without reliable access to mentorship or performance feedback. This lack of infrastructure and standardized education contributes to avoidable disparities in neurosurgical skills across the country – even for routine procedures.
In a bid to tackle this critical challenge, the Tanzanian Neurological Society has selected the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) in Dar es Salaam – one of Tanzania’s leading neurosurgical centers – to act as the pilot site for a first-of-its-kind neurosurgical education initiative in East Africa. This summer, a team from GWU – including neurosurgeons Dr. Timothy Singer and Dr. Daniel Donoho, and medical students William Randall and Nish Gowda – will meet Dr. Hamisi Shabani, Head of Pediatric Neurosurgery at MOI, in Dar es Salaam to launch the effort.
“Our team is honored to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Shabani and MOI toward our shared goal of building surgical capacity in Tanzania. We’re excited to learn about how care is provided in East Africa and to collaborate on an innovative technology that can help more people get the care they need.” – William Randall
The visit will involve a rigorous site assessment to evaluate MOI’s existing infrastructure, resources, and overall readiness to implement a neurosurgical education program powered by the Surgical Video Platform (SVP). By closely examining the local context – including connectivity, equipment, training needs, and current clinical workflows – the team aims to tailor SDSC’s technology and support to meet the specific needs of MOI. This groundwork will then serve as a template for deploying scalable, data-driven surgical education to other international sites that continue to bear the brunt of limited public health infrastructure.
Combining ETV-CPC and AI
The elected procedure for this project is the ETV-CPC (Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy with Choroid Plexus Cauterization) technique, used in the treatment of pediatric hydrocephalus – a condition that affects thousands of children in Tanzania. Hydrocephalus is an accumulation of fluid in the brain, where the brain’s ventricles (fluid-filled cavities) become enlarged, and put detrimental pressure on the surrounding brain tissue. Traditionally, this condition has been managed in high-income countries (HICs) using a ventriculoperitoneal shunt system. However, this method carries an 11-25% failure rate and requires follow-up appointments for shunt removal, both of which pose problems for an already overworked neurosurgical system where patients are frequently lost to follow-up.
In Tanzania, limited and variable neuroendoscopic intervention of hydrocephalus results in a 33.6% rate of surgical complication and mortality rates of up to 25%. Dr. Benjamin Warf, a member of the CURE Neuro Fellowship Program in Uganda – now director of NeuroKids – subsequently pioneered the ETV-CPC technique, dropping mortality rates to just 1.8%. This procedure eliminates the reliance on shunts, but scaling up its use through Tanzania’s current educational model remains a major bottleneck. As an additional line of support for this project, NeuroKids may help install the necessary hardware at MOI, along with providing technical support and sharing their extensive network throughout Africa.
Through engagement with SVP, neurosurgeons at MOI aim to accelerate their skill development, which if successful, can help scale up neuro-endoscopic learning opportunities throughout LMICs. Surgical trainees at MOI will record themselves performing procedures, upload their videos to SVP, and receive both AI-generated insights and expert mentorship from seasoned neurosurgeons. The platform will offer granular feedback on surgical technique, tool usage, and procedural flow, helping trainees improve while creating a dynamic, growing video library for peer learning and asynchronous, international mentorship.
A Networked Model for the Future
This project is more than just an academic exercise – it’s about building an accessible system for multidirectional knowledge transfer in underserved communities across the world. As the international surgical dataset grows, learning is strengthened everywhere, and we begin the shift from isolated mentorship to interconnected improvement. Beyond providing immediate benefits to Tanzanian neurosurgeons and their patients, this initiative will establish a scalable framework for implementing operative training programs and closing surgical skill gaps worldwide. By demonstrating the feasibility and impact of AI-driven surgical coaching, we hope to expand SDSC’s model to other regions in need.
“Our project is focused on closing the gap between what is possible and what is available in the treatment of neurosurgical disease. Technology and techniques are going to continue to rapidly progress. Ensuring that the rising generation of neurosurgeons globally has the resources to learn with the times will help ensure that patients are receiving the global standard of care.” – Dr. Timothy Singer, MD
If you’re interested in learning more about how SDSC’s technology is shaping the future of surgical education – or if you’d like to contribute to this initiative – reach out to us today. Together we can bridge the gap in neurosurgical care and bring life-saving innovations to the regions that need them most.
