To the Editor:We read with great interest the article by Atli et al, 1 which highlights virtual reality as a means to modernizing neurosurgical education. We believe this article is of profound academic importance and aim to present an additional valuable resource in neurosurgery for current and aspiring medical students. Here, we discuss the evolution of the various online platforms within organized neurosurgery throughout the 21st century.As a resident at the University of Maryland, Dr Mark Iguchi initiated in 2006 the first such platform through NS Match, calling it Neurosurgery Online. This site was short lived as it did not possess the infrastructure to sustain interest from medical students and young surgeons alike. However, it did highlight the need for a platform wherein current and aspiring neurosurgeons could engage and learn from seasoned attendings and medical students could find resources on things like navigating the neurosurgery match.In 2007, Dr Kenneth Liu, a resident at the University of Oregon, helped to fill these gaps with the platform Uncle Harvey. The original Uncle Harvey allowed students to engage across the spectrum of neurosurgery with residents, fellows, attendings, and peers. Each forum within Uncle Harvey helped cover a distinct topic within neurosurgery, with the addition of space for case presentations from leaders in the field. By 2012, Uncle Harvey fell in the ranks following a perceived plateau in usership. That same year, a similar yet lesser known platform, Legacy NsgyApplicants, served as the only online neurosurgical forum available for the next 3 yr. By 2015, however, resources from Legacy NsgyApplicants were no longer accessible.In 2016, a resident at the University of Buffalo picked up the baton and created Neurosurgery Hub. Neurosurgery Hub broadcasted to a wider audience and contained separate forums for students, residents, fellows, and attendings on both the national and international scales. It offered a unique space for discussing interesting cases, providing easy-access resource links, and publishing employment listings. Unlike its predecessors, Neurosurgery Hub content was accessible without registration.In 2020, a student-led initiative sought to join forces with the original creator of Neurosurgery Hub to distill the best parts of the site, along with those of its predecessors, into the new and improved Uncle Harvey 2.0. The revised Uncle Harvey maintained the forums, resources, and job listings seen previously, but added forum moderation, a blog, research opportunities, a YouTube channel, and an expanded residency program review functionality in an effort to provide a "one-stop shop" for all of neurosurgery.
inclusive of both scheduled and unscheduled gaps, when repair of sublethal damage continues to occur but when no additional damage is produced, the lower the biological effectiveness of any given dose." This statement and the paper describing the model 8 make the present use of only a part of the total treatment time (beam-on time) confusing and potentially detrimental to advances already made in this particular research field. 5,10
ous malformation remnants after surgery: a single-center series with long-term bleeding risk analysis. Neurosurg Rev.
The authors 1 raised the important question of why there should be a need for a new "global" section in neurosurgical journals, with supporting evidence that a) less than 10% of neurosurgical publications are produced by members of low-income and lower to middle-income countries, of which Egyptian and Indian authors produce 75% 5 ; b) most publications specific to traumatic brain injury care originate from Australia, China, Europe, Japan, and North America, all the while the traumatic brain injury disease burden is endemic to Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia 6 ; c) published randomized controlled trials, which inform clinical management and influence policy, receive only 9% of contributions from authors in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). 7 We agree with the comments raised forth by the authors and concur that neurosurgeons and scientists from high-income countries (HICs) must work together with colleagues in LMICs to implement policies applicable to their respective terrains. Recommendations of the Colombian Consensus Committee from the Beyond One Option for Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury: A Stratified Protocol (BOOTStraP) 8,9 are indeed effective and appropriate policy implementation measures to improve patient outcomes and quality of life; we agree with the authors. 1 Similarly, since 2001, The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has partnered with the Government of Botswana Ministry of Health and the University of Botswana to build healthcare and increase research capacity, currently employing more than 120 fulltime staff in the country. This growing Botswana-UPenn partnership has allowed for interdisciplinary care, development of postgraduate training programs at the University of Botswana, and joint research programs addressing the health and welfare of the citizens of Botswana. At Harvard Medical School, the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change has helped bridge the gap addressed by the authors through advocacy, capacity building, policy implementation, research endeavors, and systems strengthening. Moreover, at
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.