Pictured above: Attendees and faculty at the 2025 Tanzania SMART Course. UCSF faculty included Drs. Paul Toogood (UCSF), Nicolas Lee (UCSF), David Shearer (UCSF), Michael Terry (UCSF), Tony Ding (UCSF), Coleen Sabatini (UCSF), and Madeline MacKechnie (UCSF).
The 10th Annual Tanzania SMART Course, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from May 27–30, 2025, brought together 140 participants from 12 countries across Africa to teach and learn fracture care through lectures, case discussions, and hands-on sessions. The course was held at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI), one of SIGN’s busiest trauma centers, in partnership with the Institute for Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology (IGOT) and SIGN Fracture Care. Several surgeon-attendees also participated in a pre-course Faculty Educator Training (FET) Program, sponsored by AO Alliance, aimed to improve effectiveness in teaching.
The SMART Course utilizes a combination of case-based didactics and hands-on skill sessions by both orthopaedic and plastic surgeons to teach core principles in fracture management and soft-tissue reconstruction for musculoskeletal trauma. The goal of this course is to instruct orthopaedic surgeons on basic rotational flaps and reconstructive principles.
For nearly two decades, IGOT has worked to eradicate the unnecessary loss of limb function by increasing the number of surgeons who can provide vital orthopaedic care in the regions that need it the most.
We are grateful to all faculty across Africa and North America who shared their expertise and fostered meaningful knowledge exchange. The event underscored a shared commitment to advancing fracture care and surgical education across the continent.
