Elevating the Human Condition Through Pediatric Surgery
**Note - please excuse the typos. This transcript was automatically generated.**
Hetal Baman (00:00:02) - According to a 2022 article in the Pediatric Surgery International Journal, only 3% of children in low income countries have access to surgery. This number jumps to 85% of children when it comes to high income countries like the us. So what does this mean? It means that in low and middle income countries, many common and otherwise easily treatable conditions such as appendicitis or long bone fractures in children could result in death or a lifelong disability. Now, we know that the surgical needs of children differ greatly from that of adults. Each child needs customized care, whether it's a simple fracture of the femur or a complex cranial facial deformity. On today's episode, we'll be exemplifying the work of World Pediatric Project, a nonprofit that is closing the gap in access to specialty medical care for children in Latin America and the Caribbean. We'll be learning from Vafa Avan World Pediatric Project's.
Hetal Baman (00:01:08) - Chief Executive Officer Vafa brings a wealth of executive leadership experience, including a career of working with complex global organizations across seven industries in 16 different countries. He served as CEO e at Newbridge, a global consultancy. He was also c e o at Forum Corporation Consultancy in Boston, and the VP of Global Operations Information and Media for a segment of McGraw Hill and New York. Fafa also serves on the board of Directors of Children, believe a global nonprofit focused on the health and wellbeing of children in underserved communities. During this conversation will be learning about how VA's passion for advocating for children grew over time. We talk about what it was like going from a career of filmmaking to consulting to the children's nonprofit healthcare space. And ultimately, we dig into the mission of World Pediatric Project and how it's incredibly unique model serves children with the most difficult surgical challenges. As Vafa says, children are 30% of the population, but they're 100% of the future. My name is he Laman, and this is the Global Health Pursuit. Fafa, thank you for coming onto the podcast. It is such a pleasure to have you here, and especially since you just, we were just talking about it. This is your first podcast interview, so
Hetal Baman (00:02:39) - Very, very excited.
Vafa Akhavan (00:02:40) - Yeah, thank you, Hatta. It's, uh, it's wonderful to be here. Yeah. I'm obviously, you know, podcast is a such an important part of community and society today. Um, and I'm really excited about this being my first one, particularly because it has to do with something I'm very passionate about. So thank you for inviting me and making the time. Time,
Hetal Baman (00:02:59) - Of course. So, as always, I, I use a question that is a little bit broad. Um, I listen to a podcast by Brene Brown, and she oftentimes will ask her guests what their story is. Sure. And you can take it as far back as you want. Well,
Vafa Akhavan (00:03:19) - I mean, you know, I, I often think about how, how do I talk about a, um, a, a life that has been blessed with richness? Hmm. Um, and it's, I I think of it very much like a tapestry, because I was born in, in Iran, I was raised of Ohio. I went to England for school, then I went to Canada, then I went to the US and then back to Canada. Now, back to the us I've, I've worked in I think about 15 or 16 different countries. I've worked in seven different sectors. I've worked from, you know, startups to conglomerates. Always the constant has been this notion of service and having impact irrespective of the environment. There's always been this notion of giving back to the community. And so, you know, it's difficult to talk about a, a, a background that has that kind of richness as opposed to, you know, I lived in the United States and I worked with Microsoft for 35 years, and then, you know, I retired .
Vafa Akhavan (00:04:24) - Right. You know, uh, so it, it's really been a, a, a wonderful journey. The story is very rich. Many chapters in the book, you know, the experiences of working in so many countries, working with so many different people from different cultures, from different socioeconomic backgrounds, um, you know, from the frontline of a conglomerate to, you know, meet, meeting with the prime minister of a country, or the health minister of a country. And the learnings, you know, the reservoir or the treasury of learnings that you can gain from that kind of a life experience is incredibly precious. And I would en incre encourage all people, especially the younger generation, to li live a life that gives you that richness because the perspective that you have will be the perspective that's necessary for advancing humanity into the future.
Hetal Baman (00:05:17) - I agree. The episode that actually released this week, it's April 27th, I actually interviewed a South Asian therapist Hmm. Graduate student. So we talked a lot about the intricacies of mental health stigma within South Asian culture.
Vafa Akhavan (00:05:34) - Yes. Not just that culture.
Hetal Baman (00:05:35) - Oh, of course. You know, it was specific to South Asian culture, just because she is in that field. But I know it spans multiple, multiple cultures. Uh, but she did say, you really can't live for your parents a lot of times. Uh, we try to make them proud. And, you know, me coming from a South Asian background, you know, my parents are first, you know, immigrants from India. Mm-hmm. , what they wanted me to, to be is doctor. Right. But that's not really Oh, yeah. What fulfilled me, of course. Right. Yeah. They feel as if that's the highest achievement. Yes. Um, but I'm trying to find my own way because that's not, that's not necessarily what fulfilled me. And so I'm glad to hear that. You had mentioned that you were a filmmaker, and I wanna, I wanna kind of go into that a little bit because I think it's just so interesting going from filmmaking to working as a c e o of World Pediatric Project. Tell me Sure.
Vafa Akhavan (00:06:36) - How did that happen? Tell me
Hetal Baman (00:06:37) - Like the Yeah, I wanna ask you that. Sure. Cause I think it's so, so Sure. Interesting.
Vafa Akhavan (00:06:42) - Well, I mean, I, I always had, and I still have a passion for film and television as a medium to transform community. And so when I was going and like yourself, right? I, I was brought up in a, even though my parents were, you know, very, for their generation, they were very forward thinking. They were very global. Had seen the world already when my brother and I were born. Um, but still, they were kind of traditional doctor, lawyer, and there's a hierarchy, right? It's like doctors are at the top.
Hetal Baman (00:07:15) - Right? Right. Doctor, lawyer, engineer,
Vafa Akhavan (00:07:18) - Engineering, and then maybe architect . Right? Oh,
Hetal Baman (00:07:22) - Really?
Vafa Akhavan (00:07:22) - Oh, yeah. We have architects on our list. Yeah.
Hetal Baman (00:07:25) - Wow. That's so funny. Actually, I saw I'm, uh, my background is in engineering, right? And it didn't seem like that was enough . Yeah,
Vafa Akhavan (00:07:32) - Sure. So, no, I mean, my, um, my parents were no different than others. They, they really love you and they want the best for you. Right? And it's, and it's based on their experience. But I was on this track of, you know, I wanted to be a part of transformation. I wanted to make a contribution to changing communities and to elevating the human condition. That was always a constant for me. Whether it was in my work, in my career with the teams that I work with mm-hmm. or the global organizations I was with, or the volunteer work that I was doing, it was always focused on how do we elevate the human condition. And so, film to me, I had a passion for it. And I said, well, I can study, film, become a filmmaker, and then tell stories that elevate the human condition that, that I love that, that help people gain greater insight, become more familiar with the global nature of humanity.
Vafa Akhavan (00:08:22) - That, you know, the world is one country and mankind, it's citizens. Um, and what is common between us. That was my passion. So I went into film, and I remember , the, the university that I went to at the time, York University, uh, was the only university in Canada that had a film program. If I remember correctly, there was something like around 1700 applications from around the world every year. At the time, they accepted about 120 into first year. It was a four year program. And by fourth year, from that, roughly 1700 to 120 first year in the, and every year they would cut mm-hmm. . So when they would cut, you either made it to the next year in production or Wow. Or you would go into film studies. So those were two distinct programs at the university. So I continued making, in the final year, there was 14 of us.
Vafa Akhavan (00:09:16) - What? Yeah, there was 14 of us now. But this is the, this is the kicker in the story . So at the beginning of my fourth year, I just find out that I'm one of 14 that is advancing to final year. And I was really proud of that. And I was talking to my parents, and my dad said, I, I'm making a long story short. He said, are you sure you don't wanna transfer to business? ? Of course. Of course. And you know, I, I mean, I've, I've always loved him. He's, he is always been my hero. Um, but so I definitely understand, you know, that aspect of the culture. But what I learned, uh, early was that one, one has to make decisions, and one has, and there are consequences to all of those decisions. The way that I learned to, to make decisions is to really be clear about who you are at the core mm-hmm.
Vafa Akhavan (00:10:10) - and, and what you want to accomplish at the core. And so then the way in which that is expressed becomes secondary. So I realized that it, it didn't have to be, you know, it didn't have to be just through that medium, that life will change and your conditions may change, your situation may change the situation and conditions around you may change. So, you know, do you wanna be so dogmatic or so fanatical about a particular medium for the expression of your beliefs? Or do you want to be committed to your beliefs and be open to how they get expressed? So it doesn't matter what job you have really does it. I mean, it, that's it, it's important. But to me, that became secondary. So I was always looking for the opportunity to learn and to move. And life happened. I, I moved from film and television.
Vafa Akhavan (00:11:02) - I was very excited. I, you know, we did the first I p o, we cleared the first I p o in Canada for a film fund. It was the first one of its kind. And we did some incredible work, but life happened and I had to make changes. And, and I moved into, uh, a different job. And from there it led to, you know, moving to boutique consulting firm in Florida. And then from there, I went to JD Power, and then JD Power got acquired by McGraw Hill. And then they moved me to McGraw Hill. And from McGraw Hill, I went, you know, an opportunity came my way. I was approached to be the c e o at the Forum Corporation, which was a global consulting firm. Now it's a part of, uh, Korn Ferry, you know, and, and so life just happened, right? And it's a, it's this notion of what am I about at the core?
Vafa Akhavan (00:11:50) - And can that be expressed irrespective of what the opportunity is or irrespective of where I am, what company I work for, what position? Cuz I've never believed you are defined by your rank, your title, your position, or your material wellbeing, or not wellbeing. That, that to me is not what defines a person. And then I moved to, um, I moved back to Canada and I was with, uh, Newbridge, uh, which is again, back to the consulting profession. And I knew that I wanted to give back in a more substantive way through nonprofit. So I joined the Board of Children Believe, which is a global nonprofit based outta Canada. And, and that's been incredible. I'm still on the board. And, and then I was approached about this position, which is an incredible, incredible opportunity. So aligned with what I'm interested in doing, cuz I wanna focus on children. Did
Hetal Baman (00:12:46) - You first get that interest when you were approached to be on the board for Children's Belief?
Vafa Akhavan (00:12:51) - I, I think I was born with that interest in children. I mean, I, you know, I married very young because I wanted to have children at a young age. I was always giving back to the community in terms of being involved with children and children classes, you know, in the Bahai community. Um, I was always teaching children's classes, and then I was teaching junior youth classes and mentoring, you know, the young, the junior youth and the youth. So the, it, it was always, I, I didn't articulate it this way until recently, but the way I articulate it now is that children are the future. So if you want to impact the future and you want to be strategic about it, then focus on the children. Because, you know, children are 30% of the population, but they're a hundred percent of the future. So, and we can see what the adults of today are doing to the world.
Vafa Akhavan (00:13:38) - So maybe we can focus on the children so that as we impact their life and, and the way they think and the way they make decisions in a positive way, have 'em focus on the unity of the world as opposed to the division of the world, then they will grow up and they will make decisions, no matter better decisions, no matter what profession they are or what life choices they make, they'll be able to make better decisions for the future of humanity. And you do that one generation, two generations, three generations, then you'll have a different world.
Hetal Baman (00:14:08) - I think we're already seeing that with Gen Z.
Vafa Akhavan (00:14:11) - Yes. I think so.
Hetal Baman (00:14:12) - And something, the, the way that you spoke about your journey, it almost, it reminded me of another conversation that I had where she said, the universe is driving and I'm just getting on the bus. Right. And wherever it stops is wherever I get off. And that's my next opportunity. And it's like, , I'm not Christian, but it's like the Jesus take the wheel thing, you know,
Vafa Akhavan (00:14:33) - Well, listen, it's, yeah. It's a, it's a belief system, right? And if the belief system is conducive to the betterment of humanity, that it's the cause of unity in the world is as opposed to the cause of discord in the world, then everyone is, you know, know people that are interested in that will be on board. It doesn't matter what you call it, what you label it. Right? We Right. Those people are, those are the ones that you wanna surround yourself with that are the cause of unity, that are the cause of joy and happiness and elevation. And if you can't make that distinction, that's a different problem to solve. Hmm.
Hetal Baman (00:15:09) - So you are the c e O of World Pediatric Project. It is a nonprofit that focuses on the surgical needs of children all over the world. What brought you into this space of healthcare? , you know,
Vafa Akhavan (00:15:22) - .
Hetal Baman (00:15:22) - Yeah. That's, because I feel like it's very, very different, you know, filmmaking and then consulting and then on healthcare.
Vafa Akhavan (00:15:28) - Sure. Um, yeah, I have a, I have a cousin who's a, uh, I have several relatives that are medical professionals, and I have some very good friends that are medical professionals, and they're, one of them is a neurosurgeon in, at, uh, in, in Toronto. And my cousin is a doctor in the Amazon. And when, when they, when I told them that this is a position I'm taking, and they were all like, what,
Hetal Baman (00:15:53) - What you?
Vafa Akhavan (00:15:56) - No. Look, it's, um, yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's not a traditional thing, right? When I first got the specification document about the position, you know, and I've, I've had a long enough career and a wide enough set of experiences to, to be able to determine what a board of directors is looking for. Just, or, or what a, um, hiring manager is looking for just by virtue of reading the Spec doc, right. The specification document. Yeah. I, I can, I can tell you. So my initial response was, they're not gonna want to talk to me. And I told the, the recruiter, you know, they're probably looking for a World Health Organization executive, or, you know, someone from, uh, I don't know, care or, uh, unicef or someone that's been in the field,
Hetal Baman (00:16:45) - Save the children, et cetera.
Vafa Akhavan (00:16:47) - Uhhuh , a surgeon, a doctor in public health, et cetera. And, uh, he basically convinced me that I should talk with, uh, with the nominations committee. Cause they were really interested in something different. And I said, do they know what that means? That's a good question. There's a lot of people that say, we want something different. We want someone different. We want someone that's a change agent, and then they hire a very kind of a classic person for that job. They'll, they'll hire somebody who's done that job somewhere else very well and bring them in. Hmm. I, I was intrigued by the surgery. Right. That's what really intrigued me, because, you know, we, we do, we, we are pediatric surgery, but we're tertiary pediatric surgery. Right. So it's not primary or secondary. We, we handle the most difficult of the difficult cases. Hmm. So imagine a child that's got 140 degree bend in their spine.
Vafa Akhavan (00:17:39) - Wow. Or imagine a child that essentially has, you know, two mouths, two noses, and a big hole in the middle of their face. Uh, these are very complicated, very difficult cases to do. And I've always been drawn to the extremes. Mm-hmm. . Right? There's lots of great organizations that do great work, you know, delivering food, delivering education, delivering vaccines, helping transform communities, et cetera, et cetera. But the most difficult situations, Satan, are the easy ones to neglect and to overlook, because they are the difficult Oh, wow. Right? Mm-hmm. mm-hmm. . So that attracted me. The fact that it, the surgery to me was a trigger event in the life of the child. I love the notion of triggers, right? So if you look, if you look for yourself in, in your life, you will probably be able to identify certain trigger events or trigger decisions that had a long lasting trip, uh, ripple effect, right?
Vafa Akhavan (00:18:42) - Oh, yeah. . And the surgery to me is that, for that child and that family, I mean, we have one, one child, Claudia Garcia, who's two and a half hours outside of Tego Alpa in Honduras. Right. Severely deformed when she was born. Her hands are deformed. Nothing can be done for her hands. Both her legs had to get amputated. She had to have two open heart surgeries, and she's had one spinal surgery, and she will need another two spine surgeries. Right. Her grandfather used to carry her on his back from the village, the, from their house, which is outside the village to the village school. So she could get educated and then sh he would carry her back. Well, few years ago, the grandfather passed away. Mm-hmm. . So she's not getting any education. And the parents, the parents are not able to take care of her.
Vafa Akhavan (00:19:30) - Her grandmother takes care of her. We're working with her. Right. That's an example of tertiary care. It's an extreme situation. Right. But let me tell you what happened on my last visit to her, which was literally a month and a half ago. So we're in a van, there's five of us from the organization going to meet her to visit with her. It's, you know, it's, you, you have to drive on the highway. So it's a four-lane highway. Then you get on a two-lane asphalt highway, then you get on a dirt road for an hour. Then you get on something that's supposed to be a road , . It's not a road. Then you park the car and you walk to get to their house. Okay. Yeah. So we're getting clo close to her place. We're still on the asphalt road, and there's a blockade, there's a mile jam in either direction, and there's a teacher strike.
Vafa Akhavan (00:20:17) - So they've blocked the middle of the road. So our country director in Honduras gets out. I'm at the back of the line, I'm driving, I'm at back of the line. She goes to where the demonstration is. I think probably about 10, 12 minutes later, she calls me and says, okay, come on through. So I get into the other lane and I'm driving down, and everybody who's parked is giving me dirty. Looks like, who are you? Of course. You know, we know that, right? Yeah. Couple of, couple of trucks honked their horn at me. And I just went through and I got to the first blockade, and there was lots of cars, and there was people moving the cars apart. It was like, it was a scene out of the tank of man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the waters, the cars are parting ways. , and we're going through,
Hetal Baman (00:20:58) - They're parting the red
Vafa Akhavan (00:20:59) - Scene. Yeah. They're parting all of the cars. And, and, and we go through and we get to the middle and there's lots of people in the middle walking around and demonstrating and so on. And then I've gotta stop. I stop, and then this elderly lady comes, opens the door, and literally pulls me out and starts hugging me. And then another elderly lady comes and starts hugging me. And they were basically thanking us for the work that we do in their community. Right. Then we go to the other side of the blockade, because now we need to exit the blockade and go out. And a gentleman comes up and, uh, I'm stopped. I'm waiting, and the gentleman comes and starts moving people around and the car's out of the way. And he, uh, opens the way, and he thanks me with emotion of his hand. And, uh, you know, lots of tears throughout all of this.
Vafa Akhavan (00:21:42) - Of course. Right. And so IA gets in the car and we go and I say, Liana, how did you, like, what happened? How did you do that? And she said, um, I went, I found the leader. I went to the leader, and I, um, said, we need, you know, to get through. And he said, why do you need to get through it? She said, I told him that we were going to visit Claudia Garcia. And he said, are you the organization that's taking care of her? And Eliana said, yes. And he said, okay, we'll open up the blockade. Right. Wow. So, so the work that we did with Eliana was impacting the community. Right. It created this bond. It created a sense of unity. It creates this sense of appreciation. It's, it's really causing the community to aspire to a higher order, is what I call it. Right. Right. So that trigger event, the surgery will change. The life of the child, will change the life of the family. And the accumulation of that is the transformation of a community. So that was very exciting for me when I was looking at this, you know, being here at World Pediatric, I said, wow, imagine the ripple effects of all of those trigger events.
Hetal Baman (00:22:50) - Right. And, you know, her getting the care means that she could get the education that she needs. Yes. That could also help her family. She is
Vafa Akhavan (00:22:58) - Family. Yeah. Imagine that person with those kinds of, um, conditions, being able to become an independent income earning woman in her community. That's profound. That is profound. And to also be able to help her family, I mean, is profound. So she's, we, we found, you know, sponsors for her. She has a laptop, she has a cell phone, she has internet, she has transportation to the school back and forth. And she was smiling so much and laughing when I was there. And her grandmother said, I have not seen her smile or laugh in five years. Uh, how, how do I beat that when I'm working at, you know, McGraw Hill in New York? I mean, it's wonderful. I mean, that was a wonderful experience and it was wonderful. We achieved great things. But, you know, nothing comes close.
Hetal Baman (00:23:49) - I think it's just, you know, everyone's priorities are different. Sure. Your priorities are to create unity. And it's, uh, it's just so nice to hear. So in terms of the model mm-hmm. of World Pediatric Project, how, how was that connection able to, how was that connection to Claudia actually able to be made?
Vafa Akhavan (00:24:11) - Yeah, great question. So, world Pediatric Project has been around for 20 years. So over those years, um, it has developed, um, uh, presence in 11 countries. And you can imagine that over those 20 years, you're, you are building an ecosystem, right? Mm-hmm. a network, uh, a network of pediatricians, a network of hospitals, a network of suppliers, a network of surgeons, a network of donors and contributors. So you have this incredible network that you've developed over the years, and then the, the model begins to emerge right out of everybody doing good. And the beginning with, we're gonna send a team of surgeons and nurses down, you know, to St. Vincent, and we're gonna do 10 spine surgeries or whatever. Yeah. Right. And then we're gonna come back. Wonderful. That's great. That was the beginning. Mm-hmm. , where we are today is we have a presence, as in people on the ground in those 11 countries, we have a network of pediatricians that refer children to us because they know us.
Vafa Akhavan (00:25:17) - We have social media presence, which means we are found by parents that are looking, and we have relationships with partners in the field. So either the partner will refer or they will tell the parent to contact us directly. Right. And it's a wonderful community. So we have this, um, networks that's developed, and that's how the children come to us. Right. We have a model whereby there are clinics and the, in these clinic days or clinic events, the children will come and our professionals are down there, and they will assess the children, they'll look at their file and they will look at their condition. They will prepare an intervention plan for them, what they need to do mm-hmm. . And then if the surgical team starts the day after, then they're fit into the surgery schedule right there on the spot. If it's an extreme case, they will be brought to the United States where the capacity for highly specialized surgery is greater than in some of these countries.
Vafa Akhavan (00:26:18) - So that's been the model up to now. And what's particularly unique about World Pediatric Project is that when the child enters the system, they are with us until they're 21. So they enter our platform, and we are monitoring and managing their health until they're 21, which is, you know, for, for us anyways, it's the demarcation for going into the adult program. So they move into the adult, uh, care community. Uh, because a lot of the conditions, as you can imagine, a lot of the conditions that we are treating are continuous. It's, it is like the child is growing, right? The child is growing and changing physiologically. And so it needs that kind of constant attention and monitoring and so on. Because generally there are multiple surgeries involved over time. Now, what we've, what we have done since I came on board, is we have added this focus on building to building capacity and sustainability into our model.
Vafa Akhavan (00:27:17) - So the notion of, you know, one of our surgeons going down to St. Lucia for surgery, and us bringing nine surgeons from across the Caribbean to spend four days with our surgeon. So training the surgeons that are there, right? So, and then another example of that, there are great, great surgical facilities around the world. For example, a a fantastic cardiovascular surgical facility in Tego, ALPA, which is at par with, you know, any tier one hospital in the United States or anywhere else. So, okay, so we've, we've got a child that's in Nicaragua, or in Colombia or somewhere close by, why do we need to bring them to the United States when we can get them to the care much faster there? So that's another way of helping to build capacity, because as you can imagine, you've gotta practice your specialty, which means you've gotta have enough cases so that you can practice that specialty.
Vafa Akhavan (00:28:20) - So you can build proficiency and, and expertise and so on. So that's another part of our strategy as we're moving forward. And then ultimately, we're looking to transform pediatric health systems. So what does that mean? So we are partnering with, um, hospital Maria in Tego Alpa as an example, to help build that hospital into a center of pediatric excellence, four Honduras, and for the region. So, you know, we, we, we are sticking to the core because the need is so great, and we're adding this layer of capacity building and sustainability. There are 450 million children in the world under the age of five that don't have access to safe surgery, 450 million that don't have access to safe surgery. I mean, that's incredible. There, there are two and a half million babies that pass away in the, during the neonatal period around the world. I'll give you some specific data.
Vafa Akhavan (00:29:20) - Guatemala loses 4,500 babies a year during the neonatal period. The average life expectancy in Guatemala is 74.5 years. Right. That's 340,000 years of life lost every year in Guatemala. 340,000 years of life are lost in Guatemala every year. Economically. That's about 4 billion over that 75 year period every year, losing 4 billion over a 75 year period, assuming your G D P per capita stays concept. I know, I know that's a big assumption, but just directionally to think of the scale and the scope, right? It's, I mean, there, there are more people dying in the world because they don't have access to this. To safe surgery is five times greater than h I V aids, malaria and tuberculosis combined five times greater. So that's our model. That's the problem we're trying to solve.
Hetal Baman (00:30:23) - It's like, if you're listening to this, it's like, how do you wrap your brain around all of this information, those numbers that you just mentioned, they're just almost unfathomable. Yeah.
Vafa Akhavan (00:30:35) - And that's why I encourage the younger generation to get that global perspective, to get that global experience. That's one of the ways that you can appreciate, understand the scale and scope of global issues. I mean, you know, give back in any way that you can. That's wonderful. Right? That's wonderful. Help in your local community. When was the last time, um, just to your listeners, ask yourself this question, when was the last time you sat down with a homeless person on the street, on the concrete, on the street, and shared a meal with that person and had a conversation with that person asking them about their life? I know you've gotta be safe and you've gotta be secure, all of those things. But has anybody thought of doing that? That can be a very simple way to give back, to bring joy to somebody's life, even if it's for five minutes, 10 minutes.
Hetal Baman (00:31:26) - Because those are the people who feel like they, they're not seen.
Vafa Akhavan (00:31:30) - It's a pebbles. Right. We're all pebbles. Some of us are bigger pebbles. It's not a judgment, it's not important what the size of the pebble is. It's important that you drop your pebble into the water that's Yeah.
Hetal Baman (00:31:42) - and create the ripple that's right. To start. That's right. Yeah. Uh, something that you mentioned around social media, you know, during my travels to India and Honduras and mm-hmm. , uh, Southeast Asia, and within like these rural com communities, you'll see that people often have these phones and they'll have social media accounts and all of that.
Vafa Akhavan (00:32:08) - It's amazing.
Hetal Baman (00:32:09) - So it's really interesting to see that that's also a way that you can connect with people who might need these services.
Vafa Akhavan (00:32:16) - Nadal, we, we probably are able to connect with people more through Facebook than we do through their cell phones. Like if, if we can't, because there's, there's a lot of, um, uh, rotation of cell numbers and cell phones in the countries that we work in. Right. If we can't find them, if, if we dial a number, we can't find them, we, we send them a message on Facebook because no matter where they are, are they'll find a way to access their Facebook . So we'll send a message, and then sometimes we can't find Al, but we know, oh, we found Al's second cousin, so we'll contact Al second cousin. Yes. Do you know where hat hotel is? No. I don't know where she is, but her aunt who's in that other village might know where she is. So then we connect to the end, why do we need to do that? Because we need to make sure that we can get al to the imaging center so she can do her M R I or her CT scan or her x-rays so that we can get those to the surgeon to do the work. We do all of that. We do all of that to make sure that the child has the proper documentation, has the proper background, irrespective of where they live, irrespective of access. We make sure that they get it.
Hetal Baman (00:33:33) - Yeah. I mean, irrespective of access in terms of like if they're, if they're in a super rural area where Sure. There might be just like a small clinic. There might not be clinics. I mean, we've heard of people tracking hours and hours to get a clinic Yeah. Right. For medical help. Sure. Even those people. Yeah.
Vafa Akhavan (00:33:55) - Well, I mean, it's, you know, it, it, again, I said it's tertiary, right? It's, it's those difficult cases that Yeah. Um, that I get drawn to personally. Um, and that's one of the things I love about World Pediatric Project is, you know, none of our names are gonna be on a hospital building. Right. Right. Which is wonderful to have. Thank you very much for those contributions. Please continue to make those contributions, but we've decided that this is where we want to work. Right. We've decided we wanna work with those children. That would be the easy ones to neglect and overlook, because it is so difficult.
Hetal Baman (00:34:35) - Right. So, okay. So let's see. Let's say there's, let's use Claudia for example. Mm-hmm. , um, you bring her to the hospital, she gets her surgery done. Um, now there are follow ups, right? Yes. You mentioned follow ups. Yeah. And I think within the nonprofit world, I think that monitoring and evaluation is super, super critical. I mean, first of all, for, for donors to keep being donors. Yes. And, you know, just to know that your process works. Yes. Um, how do you track and report patient follow ups?
Vafa Akhavan (00:35:15) - So we have a, um, patient management platform where all of this information is stored. So it's entered into the information in, into the platform. It's stored in, in the platform. Um, and, um, you know, our doctors, our health professionals, ourselves internally have access to the information and to the, the file. So we're monitoring, and then our, our folks on the ground are following up. Right? Okay. So our team in Honduras is following up with all the children in Honduras, uh, as to where their, you know, when their next session is, what the next stage is, et cetera, et cetera. So, uh, that's how we monitor and manage them over time.
Hetal Baman (00:35:59) - So you have an on the ground team in every country that you serve?
Vafa Akhavan (00:36:02) - Um, in every country where we help children, yes. There are countries where we send the children. Uh, okay. So for example, we might send the child to the, um, cardiac wing in, in, in, at a hospital in Columbia that mm-hmm. , that does incredible work. Um, and then we'll partner with an organization and the organization. So we, we've, we sent, you know, last year, this year we are sending six children to Spain for surgery, and we partner with a nonprofit in Spain, um, to manage them on the ground, so to speak. Right. So pick 'em up at the airport, drive them to their version of Ronald McDonald House or the host family house. Mm-hmm. , make sure that they have what they need. I mean, you know, we've, we have families that, you know, come up to the US and or go to Philadelphia and Chicago, and they've never experienced cold weather.
Vafa Akhavan (00:37:00) - Oh, yeah. So, so we make sure they have proper clothing, you know, we make sure that, you know, they're well fed. We make sure that they show up for all of their appointments. And, you know, we take them, if they've gotta go from the residents to the hospital, we provide the transportation. So all of that is taken care of so that they only worry about the health of the child, and that the surgical team only work is concerned with the intervention and not the logistics and the back office stuff, and administrative stuff and operational issues. So we, we take care of all of that so that they can just focus on the health and wellbeing of the child.
Hetal Baman (00:37:41) - I did mention in the question that I sent you, I also mentioned, what about complaints?
Vafa Akhavan (00:37:48) - Yeah. From who?
Hetal Baman (00:37:50) - I don't, I mean, do
Vafa Akhavan (00:37:52) - We get complaints?
Hetal Baman (00:37:53) - Yeah. What, sure,
Vafa Akhavan (00:37:55) - Of course you get, you get complaints, but, you know, it's not, it's not like, uh, you know, at and t or T-Mobile where they're getting found .
Hetal Baman (00:38:04) - No, no. I mean, I'm just saying because, um, as, as somebody who's worked within the medical device field from, um, at j and j Sure. Uh, you know, we have a full complaints team, just Sure. Like, you know, post, uh, what is it called? It's like post post surveillance. Um, sure. And, uh, yeah. Making sure that that doesn't happen again. Yeah, of course.
Vafa Akhavan (00:38:30) - Of course. So, so the scale is different, right? We're not talking about tens of thousands. Uh, we're, we're talking about maybe, uh, you know, a couple of thousand. Um, our, our retention rate for our medical professionals, nurses, doctors, you know, surgeons, anesthesiologist, et cetera, is 98%. Oh, crazy. Wow. Uh, and, and so that in itself tells you, right, that what comes to us is not really a complaint. What comes to us is recommendations on how we can improve things. Right. Love that. Yeah. And these guys, I mean, they put, I, we had a surgical team recently that went out into a facility that ran out of blood. So my country director sends me a picture of the two surgeons sitting on a chair giving their own blood so that they can use the blood on the patients they're doing surgery on. Oh my gosh. Wow.
Vafa Akhavan (00:39:24) - Okay. Ah, so, so we don't get a lot of complaints. I think w what, you know, what I hear about is just the, the expression or the manifestation of the stress that the parents are under, right? Mm-hmm. , mm-hmm. . I mean, imagine if you're a parent, mother, father, whatever, and you know, you've got this child that's got this condition, you know, that you've been fighting since they were born, and you know, you are told that they're scheduled for something for a x-ray or for an MRI or CT scanner, or they're scheduled for clinic, or they're scheduled for surgery and something happens and they get pushed back, um mm-hmm. because of another urgent situation. I mean, you know, you can imagine the frustration, right? You can imagine the, but even there, it's really minimal. Um, the country staff do an incredible job of taking care of these families and being responsive.
Vafa Akhavan (00:40:28) - If we can't help them, we will refer them to another partner agency. I mean, we are, I think we are the biggest in the Americas. But, you know, there's lots of other wonderful people that have smaller organizations that do really great work that we partner with. You know, um, we we're, we're all, it's really interesting, this community that's in pediatrics, like we really care about the children so much that there isn't a lot of ego, ego, you know, it's like, Hey, uh, hello, Al. Yes. Um, listen, I've got this, um, scoliosis condition and, uh, we, we can't fit 'em in. Do you have capacity to handle them? Yeah. Well, what do you need? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or No, I can't. Yeah. Can you, why don't you, why don't you call John, uh, over at that organization? He might have some room. We, we, we'll make it happen. So the, it's not like complaints where, Hey, um, I didn't like my seat on the airline , so, you know, or the, or the nurse was rude. Uh, or the nurse know how to put the needle in my vein. She punched 12 holes before she got into the vein to draw blood . Oh, no. We don't get those kinds of
Hetal Baman (00:41:41) - .
Hetal Baman (00:41:42) - It's just like an interesting, it's just like when you, when you compare it to like a giant medical device company. Sure. You know, um, it's just interesting. I did wanna mention that somebody that I interviewed very early on, uh, his name is Dr. Brei. Dr. Witham Brei. He, he is the founder of Brei Scientific, and they focus on neonatal, um, mortality, uh, in low and middle income countries. It would just be awesome for you guys to talk. Uh, he and his team invented a neonatal incubator that is reusable and disposable. Wow. It is like incredible. Yeah. Um, so, well,
Vafa Akhavan (00:42:30) - You know, nicu NICU is actually, um, a big part of what we do and, and it is a priority for us into the future, is to develop a global program, uh, based on what we're doing in NICU today. So yeah. Happy to connect and have a
Hetal Baman (00:42:47) - Conversation. Yeah. I think he was the first, the second or third episode on the podcast. So it's out. You can definitely go check it out. Yeah. Um, you know, for the future,
Vafa Akhavan (00:42:59) - Hmm.
Hetal Baman (00:42:59) - Where do you, where are you looking to go next? Like, what are your goals?
Vafa Akhavan (00:43:03) - Um, uh, I'd like to go on a holiday. next.
Hetal Baman (00:43:07) - Nice. .
Vafa Akhavan (00:43:11) - Um,
Hetal Baman (00:43:11) - I'm sure you, somebody like, you, like, you know,
Vafa Akhavan (00:43:14) - No, you know, I'm, um, it's, I'm, I will continue, um, to work in this space. Um, you know, I, I want to continue working until I can, and I want to continue working with children until I can, anything that has to do with the cause of children. Because when, you know, and this goes back to your question of earlier, how do you go from film to healthcare? It's, it's really understanding what your core competencies and capabilities are, and how well those align with the needs that you are looking or considering, right? Right. And I didn't need to be a health expert. We've got health expertise in this organization, right. But what the board wanted was this organization to evolve and to develop and to mature. So it was a wonderful organization. It still is a wonderful organization, but if I can equate it to, you know, uh, uh, uh, someone growing up, right?
Vafa Akhavan (00:44:12) - So you, you go from adolescence to maturity, right? Mm-hmm. . And so it's that progression that the board wanted to accomplish. What's the next stage? And that's the kind of work that I do. I didn't need to be a health expert, right? So whatever comes next for me, um, is gonna be in the same vein, is I, I wanna focus on things that have to do with children. I wanna work with the cause of children, and it's gotta be obviously somewhere where I can add value and have impact. So that's gonna be my, um, hopefully this will be, you know, my final ch the, the final chapter in Rafa's book is all about kids.
Hetal Baman (00:44:53) - I absolutely love that. Yeah. Thank you BFA for coming. My pleasure. Into the podcast. I will put down, uh, you know, in the show, I will have all of the links, uh, for if anyone wants to learn more about World Pediatric Project and maybe get in contact with you, lafa, and ask you any more questions that they have. All of those links will be in the show notes for our listeners. So thank you.
Vafa Akhavan (00:45:20) - It was my pleasure. Thank you for the invitation, Atal. It was, uh, it was great to meet you, and I'm so excited that my first podcast was with you and with World Pediatric Project. I mean, that's an incredible milestone that I will keep close to my heart. Thank you.
Hetal Baman (00:45:36) - Thank you for listening to this episode. If you'd like to learn more about today's topic and guest, head over to the show notes linked in the description of this episode. There, you can get access to resources, links, and ways you can get involved in the pursuit for Global Health. And if you love this episode, don't forget to write me a review on Apple Podcast and rate the podcast on Spotify. It helps me get in front of more people just like you, and continues to elevate the causes we are so passionate about. I'll see you in the next one.