UCSD Collaborations

International Neurosurgical Children's Association (INCA)

The International Neurosurgical Children’s Association (INCA) is a non-profit organization that identifies hospitals in need of support and provides them with equipment and training lead by Director Rahul Jandial, M.D., currently a senior resident surgeon with UCSD Neurosurgery, and Lead Surgeon Michael Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital, San Diego. Founded in 2002, INCA has raised funds and generated enough interest from clinicians to lead to several pediatric surgery missions to countries like Peru, Bolivia, and the Ukraine. INCA is funded primarily by Variety Children’s Lifeline, an international children’s charity group. Our collaboration with INCA will include multiple training expeditions made by their neurosurgical team to El Hospital Antonio Lenin Fonseca in Managua, and donations of desperately needed neurosurgical equipment valued at well over $25,000. We completed the site evaluation of El Hospital Antonio Lenin Fonseca on our September trip, and have planned the first training mission for the Spring of 2008.

A Ministry of Sharing (AMOS) Health and Hope

AMOS Health and Hope is a non-governmental organization comprised of physicians and health workers seeking to offer health and hope by serving the health needs of poor and marginalized populations in Latin America. They have been serving as medical missionaries in Nicaragua for over half a decade now, partnering with over 75 rural communities, other non-governmental organizations like CEPAD, and the Ministry of Health to address issues concerning access to healthcare in the country.  AMOS uses an integral approach to improving health in rural areas which includes basic maternal and child health services, community nutrition, dental health, family planning, provision of essential medications, health promotion, and community organizing. They extend the reach of Nicaragua’s healthcare systems into the rural communities by developing and supporting a community’s capacity to set up and implement basic primary health care services. We have been working with AMOS and the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) to execute prevalence studies of intestinal parasites among Nicaraguan primary school children to help gauge the intensity of parasite infections and dictate the MINSA’s national treatment regimen. We also hope to work with AMOS to build community health clinics and fund the training of Nicaraguan community health workers.