The Vail Rotary Club participated in a  multi-club $100+K Global Grant to provide training for Colombian healthcare providers in Iowa as well as in Bogota, Colombia.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ponseti Method Training for the Treatment of Clubfoot in Colombia
 
PROGRESS REPORT TO PARTNER CLUBS - GRANT NUMBER: GG1860348
 
We are pleased to report that this project is ahead of schedule and is going very well. The Rotarians and doctors in Colombia have taken their responsibilities seriously and are making great progress in being able to serve the 800 or so children born with clubfoot every year in Colombia’s population of 48 million.
 
Highlights of the project include:
 
  • Comprehensive training has been completed for 28 Orthopaedic surgeons, including 4 experienced practitioners who have served as mentors and 24 new physicians who have been fully trained to use the Ponseti Method.
  • Awareness-raising activities have been undertaken with clinical staff, parents, and officials to assist community mobilization.
  • Several meetings have been held with the Ministry of Health to officially recognize the Ponseti method as the accepted standard of care for clubfoot in Colombia. The group leading this effort now includes specialists in Public Health.
  • High quality clubfoot braces (Clubfoot Solutions) have been approved for import into Colombia and these braces are now available country-wide through a registered Colombian medical device distributor. This distributor can also now supply braces to other Latin American countries.
  • The Rotarians and doctors are working with the Esteban Chaves Foundation to transport children of needy families to the clinic in Bogota at no cost.  The Foundation also pays for the casts and tenotomy (if needed) for these families.
  • The Rotarians and doctors have a formal agreement with the Ronald McDonald house in Bogota to provide accommodations for the children being treated at the hospital there.
 
Rotarians from the Rotario Bogotá Centenario club and District 6000 are providing the promised collaboration, communication, monitoring and evaluation of this project.  One of the primary activities that remains is for the mentors to conduct follow-up visits to the newly trained doctors to assure that the treatment they are providing is of the highest quality and to provide additional training, guidance, and consultation on difficult or unusual cases.
 
Rotarians and doctors in Colombia, Rotarians in District 6000, and the Ponseti International Association, on behalf of hundreds of clubfoot children in Colombia, are extremely grateful to the partner clubs who have made this project possible:
           
                        Downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa (District 5970)
Marco Island Noontime, Florida (District 6960)
Rotary Club of Vail, Colorado (District 5470)
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
Tom Cook, an integral member of  RAG4Clubfoot has published a book on the life of Dr. Ignacio Ponseti, the physician that introduced the technique that bears his name.   Click on the link below for a brief review of the book.