With the COVID pandemic raging, the last 2 years have been very difficult. In many ways. For all of us. Global travel has been shut down for much of this time which has unfortunately halted the expansion of centres in Tanzania at this early stage of the mesh hernia project. The funding landscape has also been left barren, with significant cuts at governmental levels and other potential fund holders’ concentration fixed firmly on the pandemic.
However, there has been significant work taking place in the background. The Tanzanian centres that are up and running continue to cement their local services. Progress has been made on the electronic Mesh Registry, with final beta testing taking place before release and clinical application. Further development has been done on our teaching and training resources. And our links and bonds with stakeholders continue to ‘sure up’, even if this is remotely. The exciting Google Glass project unfortunately stuttered, due to limitations of the software currently available. But we remain committed to exploring and pursuing Technology Enhanced Learning initiatives.
As we tentatively emerge from the worst of the pandemic, there are a lot of exciting developments to look forward to in the final quarter of this year We will be welcoming Mugisha to the UK in late October, with SWIFTSS work being featured at the GASOC conference. There is also a reciprocal trip planned to Tanzania for November. So, there is hope on the horizon and lots of work still to be done.