TY - JOUR T1 - Breaking Specialty Silos: Improving Global Child Health Through Essential Surgical Care JF - Global Health: Science and Practice JO - GLOB HEALTH SCI PRACT SP - 183 LP - 189 DO - 10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00009 VL - 8 IS - 2 AU - Isaac Wasserman AU - Alexander W. Peters AU - Lina Roa AU - Farhana Amanullah AU - Lubna Samad Y1 - 2020/06/30 UR - http://www.ghspjournal.org/content/8/2/183.abstract N2 - Key MessagesDespite the large role that children’s surgery plays in reducing morbidity and mortality, global child health initiatives have historically focused on nonsurgical diseases.Children’s health care providers and children’s surgery providers can collaborate to improve children’s health through shared values.Long-term investments in surgical workforce development must accompany more immediate measures addressing the current surgical burden.The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery provides a framework to which children’s surgery can harmoniously be integrated.Innovative funding mechanisms may invest to scale cost-effective operations along with ongoing data collection and research.The United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3) is to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.”1 In particular, this goal aspires to reduce neonatal mortality to less than 12 per 1,000 live births and under-5 mortality to less than 25 per 1,000.2 SDG-3 also addresses trauma, aspiring to halve “the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents” by 2020. Access to safe surgery and anesthesia will help achieve SDG-3 and will require focusing on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs),3 where more than 90% of child deaths occur.4 An estimated 43% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is aged 15 and younger, and approximately 30% of the population in LMICs fall in this age group.5Addressing the needs of this underserved community requires a coordinated “all hands on deck” approach between all stakeholders, particularly children’s health care providers, surgeons, and nonphysician clinicians. Global efforts addressing children’s health have historically, and to this day, focused their efforts on nonsurgical diseases (Figure).6,7FIGURE. United Nations Children’s Fund Budget for Program Funding, 2018–2021aa US$billionChildren and adolescents comprise 1.7 billion of the nearly 5 billion people who lack access to surgical care.8–10 To make … ER -