Strengthening surgical systems

Dr Rennie Qin is passionate about better surgical support for communities facing inequities in health

Dr Rennie Qin (pictured above) is a General Surgery Trainee from Aotearoa New Zealand. She has recently completed a Paul Farmer Global Surgery research fellowship at the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) at the Harvard Medical School and a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health as a Fulbright scholar. Rennie’s interest in global health stems from her experience growing up in Papakura, South Auckland. “Travelling to remote areas of Nepal, Philippines, and Aotearoa New Zealand during medical school, I saw the same inequities I had witnessed in my community. We were not well-off. My mum did odd jobs at the supermarket to make ends meet. With the privilege of my education, I wanted to give back. Coming from a multicultural community, I always defined my community not by geographic location but by our shared experience of inequity,” she says. At the PGSSC, Rennie worked to support five Pacific Island countries—Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Cook Islands, and Palau—to develop National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anaesthesia Plans (NSOAPs) in collaboration with RACS Global Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Pacific Community (SPC). “We have supported ministries of health to conduct situational analyses, convene multi-stakeholder dialogues, and draft strategies,” she says. “I also helped to set up a program on safe and affordable surgery at the WHO Western Pacific regional office alongside Dr Liz McLeod. “We seek to support countries to create sustainable ecosystems for surgical care, moving beyond short-term fixes and interventions for single areas, such as training and equipment donation. This work builds on the foundation of the RACS Pacific Island Program over the last few decades,” Rennie says. “One of the biggest lessons for me is not to assume that I know best. In clinical care, visiting specialists have obvious expertise in their specialty. However, when it comes to health systems, we all are learning,” she says. “As a highincome-country Trainee, I take many health system elements for granted, such as sterilisation and waste management. My colleagues in the Pacific often have a better understanding of integrating surgery with public health.” Rennie went to Harvard looking for answers but found them back home in her region. “New Zealand is looked up as a world leader in our COVID-19 response and in decolonisation. Having learned about Māori health in medical school, it struck me that many Indigenous health principles are absent from global health, such as upholding Indigenous self-determination, worldview, and ways of knowing. Global health should just be Indigenous health everywhere. Unfortunately, this is often not the case with the structuring of global health funding and research.” Rennie looks forward to returning to Aotearoa New Zealand and starting her General Surgery training in 2023. “I am deeply privileged by the relationship with my Pacific colleagues over the last two years and hope to continue this for years to come.” On completing her training, she hopes to be an academic surgeon focusing on health policy and systems research. “I hope to work collaboratively with colleagues in the Pacific to analyse and improve our respective surgical delivery systems and share mutual lessons in doing so.”

Dr Sharon Jay RACSTA Chair

Image (from left): Dr Rennie Qin; Dr Geoff Ibbotson (UNITAR), Dr Jemes Tudravu (Chief Medical Officer, Fiji), Dr Alfredo Borrero (Vice President of Ecuador), Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete (Minister of Health, Fiji), and Dr Kee Park (Harvard).