Håkon Angell Bolkan
Background and activities
My research is about scalable solutions to increase access to surgical services in low-income countries. In 2010, I established CapaCare, an organization offering medical training in areas lacking this competence. CapaCare has been active in Sierra Leone since 2010 and has extensive cooperation with NTNU, which in turn cooperates with other academic centers in Europe. We implement and test new ways to conduct surgical training and surgical service delivery in areas with little resources, we evaluate the effect and safety of task-sharing in surgery and obstetrics.
We have also examined how and if surgical procedures can be an indicator of a health system during major disasters, such as the West African Ebola outbreak in 2014-16.
Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2019) National prospective cohort study of the burden of acute small bowel obstruction. BJS Open.
- (2019) ”For this one, let me take the risk”: why surgical staff continued to perform caesarean sections during the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone. BMJ Global Health. vol. 4.
- (2019) The rate and perioperative mortality of caesarean section in Sierra Leone. BMJ Global Health. vol. 4.
- (2019) Evaluation of a surgical task sharing training programme's logbook system in Sierra Leone. BMC Medical Education. vol. 19 (1).
- (2019) Caesarean section performed by medical doctors and associate clinicians in Sierra Leone. British Journal of Surgery. vol. 106 (2).
- (2018) Admissions and surgery as indicators of hospital functions in Sierra Leone during the west-African Ebola outbreak. BMC Health Services Research. vol. 18 (846).
- (2018) Correction to: The Met Needs for Pediatric Surgical Conditions in Sierra Leone: Estimating the Gap. World Journal of Surgery.
- (2018) Macroeconomic costs of the unmet burden of surgical disease in Sierra Leone: A retrospective economic analysis. BMJ Open. vol. 8:e017824 (3).
- (2018) Comparison of surgical skill acquisition by UK surgical trainees and Sierra Leonean associate clinicians in a task-sharing programme. BJS Open.
- (2018) Distance, accessibility and costs. Decision-making During Childbirth in Rural Sierra Leone: a Qualitative Study. PLOS ONE. vol. 13 (2).
- (2017) Safety, productivity and predicted contribution of a surgical task-sharing programme in Sierra Leone. British Journal of Surgery. vol. 104 (10).
- (2017) The met needs for pediatric surgical conditions in Sierra Leone: estimating the gap. World Journal of Surgery. vol. 42 (3).
- (2017) Learning Curve Characteristics for Caesarean Section Among Associate Clinicians: A Prospective Study from Sierra Leone. World Journal of Surgery. vol. 41.
- (2016) Clinical features of suspected Ebola cases referred to the Moyamba ETC, Sierra Leone: Challenges in the later stages of the 2014 outbreak. BMC Infectious Diseases. vol. 16 (308).
- (2016) The Surgical Workforce and Surgical Provider Productivity in Sierra Leone: A Countrywide Inventory. World Journal of Surgery. vol. 40 (6).
- (2016) The Impact of the West Africa Ebola Outbreak on Obstetric Health Care in Sierra Leone. PLOS ONE. vol. 11 (2).
- (2016) Clinical features of and risk factors for fatal Ebola virus disease, Moyamba District, Sierra Leone, December 2014–February 2015. Emerging Infectious Diseases. vol. 22 (9).
- (2015) Assessment of caesarean section and inguinal hernia repair as proxy indicators of total number of surgeries. The Lancet. vol. 385.
- (2015) Assessing cesarean section and inguinal hernia repair as proxy indicators of the total number of surgeries performed in Sierra Leone in 2012. Surgery. vol. 157 (5).
- (2015) Who is performing surgery in low-income settings: a countrywide inventory of the surgical workforce distribution and scope of practice in Sierra Leone. The Lancet. vol. 385.