Our faculty at William & Mary are making great contributions to academia with their research. In this blog series, we interview faculty with recent publications for insight into their scholarship.
Candice Benjes-Small, head of research and librarian to Kinesiology and Health Sciences, spoke to Assistant Professor Carrie Dolan about her recently published article, “Cost-effectiveness of paediatric surgery: An evaluation of World Paediatric Project surgical interventions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
In 2-3 sentences, describe your scholarship to someone unfamiliar with the field.
Health care nonprofits that help impoverished children overseas often focus on just one specialty — dental work, for example, or vision loss. But new research from William & Mary’s Global Research Institute shows that investing across a broader spectrum of surgical interventions can be more cost-effective in helping sick children live longer. In short: The study determined 5,815 years of healthy life were made possible by WPP’s surgical interventions in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 2002-2019 — each of those saved years costs about $2,600. For most of the nonprofit’s specialties, the surgery leads to economic benefits that are greater than the cost of the procedure, researchers found.
What was the most exciting/interesting part of this project for you?
We found scaling up these dedicated surgical programs for children is both a cost-effective and essential component in improving overall pediatric health.
How did W&M Libraries help support your scholarship?
I worked on this project at several W&M writing retreats.
Is there anything else you want to share?
Thanks for helping promote our work.
*W&M faculty and staff who wish to be part of this series should complete the form available at: https://guides.libraries.wm.edu/pubpromotion