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
- (2021) A Nationwide Enumeration of the Surgical Workforce, its Production and Disparities in Operative Productivity in Liberia. World Journal of Surgery.
- (2021) Outcomes After Elective Inguinal Hernia Repair Performed by Associate Clinicians vs Medical Doctors in Sierra Leone: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open. vol. 4 (1).
- (2021) Barriers to increase surgical productivity in Sierra Leone: A qualitative study. BMJ Open. vol. 11 (12).
- (2021) Evaluating the cascade of care for hypertension in Sierra Leone. Tropical medicine & international health. vol. 26 (11).
- (2021) Changes in surgical volume, workforce, and productivity in Sierra Leone between 2012 and 2017. Surgery.
- (2021) Chronic wounds in sierra leone: Searching for buruli ulcer, a ntd caused by mycobacterium ulcerans, at masanga hospital. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. vol. 15 (10).
- (2021) The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital utilisation in Sierra Leone. BMJ Global Health. vol. 6 (10).
- (2021) Early evaluation of the transition from an analog to an electronic surgical logbook system in Sierra Leone. BMC Medical Education. vol. 21 (1).
- (2021) Catastrophic expenditure and impoverishment after caesarean section in Sierra Leone: An evaluation of the free health care initiative. PLOS ONE. vol. 16 (10).
- (2020) Impact of surgical infrastructure and personnel on volume and availability of essential surgical procedures in Liberia. BJS Open. vol. 4.
- (2020) Outcomes of obstructed abdominal wall hernia: results from the UK national small bowel obstruction audit. BJS Open.
- (2020) Travel time and perinatal mortality after emergency caesarean sections: an evaluation of the 2-hour proximity indicator in Sierra Leone. BMJ Global Health. vol. 5:e003943 (12).
- (2020) Perinatal outcomes of cesarean deliveries in Sierra Leone: A prospective multicenter observational study. International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics. vol. 150 (2).
- (2019) Outcomes following small bowel obstruction due to malignancy in the national audit of small bowel obstruction. European Journal of Surgical Oncology. vol. 45.
- (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:e001605 (5).
- (2019) Malnutrition, nutritional interventions and clinical outcomes of patients with acute small bowel obstruction: results from a national, multicentre, prospective audit. BMJ Open.
- (2019) National prospective cohort study of the burden of acute small bowel obstruction. BJS Open.
- (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).