Interplast, headquartered in California, has been helping children
with cleft lip and palate internationally since 1969. This partnership
consists of three major initiatives:
Smile Train Incubator Program: The premise of this program is
to support efforts by local doctors who have the ability, infrastructure,
and the initiative to perform surgical assistance on their own,
but do not have the means to do so. The local Incubator doctors'
surgical results are mentored by experienced professionals with
communication through telemedicine. Through this program, active
Incubator Sites have been established in poor countries around
the world. Thousands of surgeries are expected through this program-all
performed by local Incubator doctors.
Anesthesia Program: This program provides funding to purchase
new anesthesia vaporizers and replace the existing anesthesia
with a new, safer agent in each of Interplast's program sites.
This new anesthesia will make the delivery of anesthesia 15% more
effective and much safer for the children and allows each site
to provide service to many more children.
CD-ROM/Cleft Curriculum: The Smile Train is funding efforts
to develop an interactive multi-media teaching tool that contains
text, pictures, and video. The computer-based training and testing
curriculum has the capability to be translated into many different
languages to assist medical professionals all around the world.
The CD-ROM/Cleft Curriculum has been completed and will soon be
available in eight languages. Distribution of the CD to foreign
host surgeons is underway.
"Interplast's partnership with the Smile Train
has allowed us to take a giant step toward enabling overseas
surgeons to treat the poor within their own countries; has significantly
upgraded our anesthesia program; and has provided access for
physicians in poor countries to the techniques of some of the
worldıs most skilled plastic surgeons. The Smile Trainıs support
has dramatically increased Interplastıs ability to reach greater
numbers of poor children waiting for life-changing surgeries." — Susan W. Hayes, President and CEO, Interplast
Interplast
857 Maude Ave
Mountain View, CA 94043
Telephone: 650.962.0123 or 1.888.INPLAST(1.888.467.5278)
Fax: 650.962.1619
Web site: www.interplast.org
