Expanding Neonatal and Pediatric Surgical Care in Conflict-Affected Settings: The MSF Experience

On behalf of the UBC Branch for Global Surgery and the Institute for Global Health at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospital (IGH-CW), we invite you to attend a talk on “Expanding Neonatal and Pediatric Surgical Care in Conflict-Affected Settings: The MSF Experience” featuring Dr. Shahrzad Joharifard and Dr. Jean-Pierre Létoquart.

When: Wednesday, May 27, 2026, 7:00 – 8:00 AM

Where: BC Children’s Hospital TACC – Rooms T4-546 A&B7:00–8:00 AM PT + virtual

In many conflict-affected settings, children comprise the majority of the population, yet neonatal and pediatric surgical care remains largely absent from humanitarian surgical priorities. While emergency surgical programs have expanded globally, children with congenital conditions and other complex surgical diseases often remain without access to specialized surgical, anesthesia, and perioperative care, resulting in preventable disability, chronic morbidity, and death.

In this talk, pediatric surgeon Shahrzad Joharifard and longtime MSF-France surgical advisor Jean-Pierre Létoquartdiscuss ongoing efforts within Médecins Sans Frontières to expand access to pediatric surgical care in some of the world’s most resource-constrained settings. Through clinical cases and field experience, they explore the challenges of delivering complex neonatal and pediatric surgical care in environments with limited anesthesia, nursing, ICU, and follow-up infrastructure, and consider what ethical, sustainable pediatric surgical care should look like in humanitarian medicine.