An Outstanding World Health Organization Online Basic Surgery Reference for Primary Physicians

An outstanding free online basic surgery resource for all primary physicians, nurses, and other health workers is the World Health Organization’s 2003 Surgical Care at The District Hospital. Although the audience is clearly health care practioners in remote areas in developing nations, it provides an excellent resource for review for nonspecialist of all the subjects it covers (even if they practice in less austere environments).

The Preface states:

“The mission of the team responsible for Devices and Clinical Technology in the World Health Organization Department of Blood Safety and Clinical Technology (WHO/BCT) is to promote the quality of clinical care through the identification, promotion and standardization of appropriate procedures, equipment and materials, particularly at district hospital level.

“WHO/BCT has identified education and training as a particular priority, especially for non-specialist practitioners who practise surgery and anaesthesia. It has therefore developed Surgical Care at the District Hospital as a practical resource for individual practitioners and for use in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, in-service training and continuing medical education programmes. The manual is a successor of three earlier publicationsthat are widely used throughout the world and that remain important reference
texts: General Surgery at the District Hospital (WHO, 1988) Surgery at the District Hospital: Obstetrics Gynaecology,Orthopaedics and
Traumatology (WHO, 1991) Anaesthesia at the District Hospital (WHO, 1988; second edition 2000).”