Please see templates below for Scientific and Clinical abstract submissions:

Background-

From December 2014 until April 2015 I was employed as a hand therapist on the Mercy Ship in Madagascar.  The Australian Hand Therapy Association philanthropic scholarship provided financial assistance to under take this volunteer work. Whilst on board, I worked closely with an international plastics team.  I was fortunate to take part in the screening of potential surgical patients, work with these patients post operatively and continue to provide rehabilitation on an outpatient basis.

Problem-

The major clinical problem I encountered was compromised healing.  This will be briefly illustrated by a review of case studies: young patients took in excess of 60 days to heal a simple donor site.

Intervention-

The Mercy Ship is the largest non-government surgical ship in the world, comprising of volunteers who have worked extensively through out Africa.  The Mercy Ship continues to refine their intervention for their unique population of patients. 

The plastics team carefully analyse statistics to continue to refine their treatment protocols to build on previous success.  Information investigated includes: length of stay, infection rates and an evaluation of surgical intervention ie rom, goal acquisition, etc.  Over the years this has resulted in many changes in practice.  Most notably the intervention outside of the hospital including the provision of pre and post-operative nutrition, air conditioning and clean water supply.

Recommendations-

This paper aims to encourage clinicians to be suitably prepared before undertaking aid work in hand therapy.