As part of Dr. Syed Nabeel Zafar’s ongoing Baldwin Award-funded project focused on perioperative quality improvement (QI) capacity building in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Department of Surgery hosted two visiting surgeons: Dr. Yoseph Betore Godebo from Hawassa University, Ethiopia and Dr. Francis Pikiti from University Teaching Hospital/Zambia University, Zambia. This trip marked their first visit to the United States.
Their visit was scheduled from Oct. 2-11, 2025 and included attendance at the ACS Clinical Congress and a three-day clinical observership at UW–Madison. This experience is a key component of the project’s goal to develop local QI champions and foster meaningful bilateral academic exchange.
Dr. Godebo, a Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) surgeon and former department head at Hawassa University, recently completed an HPB fellowship and is the only HPB-trained surgeon in a region serving over 20 million people. While in Madison, he observed the Surgical Oncology and Transplant services and contributed to mentoring UW–Madison trainees involved in global surgery electives.
Dr. Pikiti, a junior general surgeon with a focus on burns and emergency surgery at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia, observed the Emergency General Surgery and Burn services. His visit emphasized systems-based QI strategies applicable to his clinical setting.
The Department of Surgery is excited to support their professional development and deepen our institutional collaborations through this exchange.