Social Media Neurosurgery and Global Neurosurgery

The gap between high-income countries (HICs) and low and middle-income countries (LMICs) in the capability of fulfilling the population health needs still remains one major global issue. About 80% of the world’s population lives in developing countries with limited access to healthcare facilities, particularly those requiring high technological and organizational standards such as neurosurgery. It has been calculated that, in LMICs, approximately five million people annually are estimated to be left untreated for essential neurosurgical conditions that would elsewhere receive surgical treatment. In the setting of limited economical resources issues like analphabetism, limited healthcare infrastructures, lack of specialized practitioners, unequal distribution of resources, brain drain, lack of political and private sector initiatives, poor referral mechanisms, and missing rehabilitation services are daily encountered preventing the development of effective neurosurgical practice.

Thus, there is great scope for improvement in education, facilities and organizational models also in cooperation with Institutions from wealthier countries. There is an urgent need for a concerted effort on the part of individuals, communities, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and international partners to uplift the standard of neurosurgery by modifying factors in the sociocultural, economic, and political areas. A pivotal role can be played by social media, which provide an open platform by which professionals from different socio-economic background can share educational material, compare clinical experiences, and collaborate with educational equity. ” Neurosurgery Cocktail “is one such platform for neurosurgeons in all social media including Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram etc., disseminating neurosurgery knowledge globally for neurosurgical education. At the same time, working in a low-income setting gives neurosurgeon’s opportunities for inventiveness and proficiency in identifying cost-effective strategies and methods of treatment based on limited resources. Physicians must be flexible in regard to work attitudes and cooperation, and they greatly develop the skill of flexibility and resilience. Emphasis on cost-effective approaches, the rational use of available resources, and an increased reliance on the clinical judgment can help in the development of neurosurgery in these regions. Also, there is a vast scope of research on many disease conditions endemic to these countries.

This Special Issue aims to cover innovative research articles and updated reviews concerning all the above mentioned aspects concerning global and humanitarian neurosurgery and social media neurosurgery. Emphasis will be put on studies concerning education, organizational paradigms, socio-economic aspects, and cooperation models in the field of neurosurgery as well as any aspect concerning the development of core facilities, the role of social media and optimization of treatment strategies for neurosurgery. Finally, clinical studies on disease conditions endemic to LMICs will be also welcome.