One year later, Lak and Ou underwent surgeries that made eating and drinking effortless. Wanna now works with the twins to improve their speech by using exercises from an Operation Smile speech training camp.
Operation Smile has been working in Thailand since 1997, delivering free top-quality cleft care to children living with cleft conditions. Over the last two and a half decades, we have provided over 15,000 patients with life-saving surgeries.
THE NEED
2.4 per 1,000. Thailand faces a high cleft prevalence, with 2.14 cases per 1,000 births.
Unequal access to care. Cleft care and specialized surgical services are concentrated in urban centers, which creates multiple barriers to accessing treatment for people living in rural areas. The medical workforce is unequally distributed across Thailand, with physician density in the central region 12-fold higher than that in the Northeast, an area with the lowest economic growth in all of the country’s regions.
Shortfall of health workers. At the national level, there are just 13 specialist surgical workers per 100,000 people, which is significantly lower than the target set by the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery of 20 providers per 100,000 population.
There are three doctors, nurses and midwives per 1,000 people, falling below the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 4.45.
OUR FORMULA FOR TRANSFORMATION
Operation Smile’s formula for transformational impact combines care delivery & capacity-building.
Education programs are at the center of Operation Smile’s strategy to increase access to surgery closer to the patient’s home.
Each surgical program brings together providers from all over the world for a unique opportunity to share knowledge and innovate. This type of bi-directional learning is essential to redistributing knowledge between providers and building capacity in the areas of greatest need.
Our work in health policy & advocacy and health infrastructure & equipment addresses structural barriers to care and helps build robust health systems. Operation Smile’s research & innovation efforts inform all aspects of our decision-making and allow us to have a comprehensive understanding of the impact our programs have on patients.
HUB & SPOKES
To ensure that every child has access to care close to home, we equip the providers within our patients’ communities with skills and resources to deliver high quality care. We build the needed capacity by harnessing the talent and resources that exist within the country, usually in the bigger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where most patients lack access to care.
In Thailand, Operation Smile’s hubs are located at Chiang Mai University Cleft Center in Chiang Mai and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok.
Operation Smile has a spoke at Mae Sot General Hospital in Mae Sot, where patients receive burn care.
During Fiscal Year July 2024-June 2025, Operation Smile Canada has committed to invest $50,690, accounting for 7% of Thailand’s total projected budget for the fiscal year, which will directly contribute to providing high-quality surgical care to approx. 1,290 patients and providing training for 610 medical providers.
Cleft Care Programs
Operation Smile will provide cleft surgery for approximately 980 patients and other surgery for 310 patients. We will expand comprehensive cleft care services by delivering consultations in oral health (1,800 patients) and speech therapy (270 patients). We will recruit around 70 patients in need of cleft treatment.
Education
As part of our effort to enhance the quality of health services in Thailand and increase access to cleft care, we will provide education and training to around 610 medical providers. Operation Smile will provide plastic surgery and biomedical engineering training. Additionally, we will hold American Heart Association training courses for providers working in various specialties.
FIVE-YEAR VISION
Operation Smile will expand the availability and accessibility of comprehensive cleft care in Northern Thailand, an area with a high volume of patients living with untreated cleft conditions.
In the next five years, Operation Smile will provide 4,550 patients with surgery. In addition, will deliver comprehensive cleft care consultations to around 4,870.
We will establish a pool of certified Thai biomedical technicians in collaboration with Mahidol University, offering annual didactic and hands-on training sessions.
We will expand our groundbreaking Perfect Smile Project, which supports patients born with cleft conditions from birth through adulthood, encouraging them to continue their treatment throughout the entirety of their treatment protocol.
In Thailand, nearly 60% of all burn cases are severe burn cases that require immediate medical attention and specialized treatment. Operation Smile will provide surgical and medical support for patients suffering from burns, ensuring they receive the care they need to recover and regain their quality of life.
Operation Smile aims to extend acute burn care management to peripheral areas by partnering with Mae Sot General Hospital. This collaboration will provide training opportunities for burn unit staff through pressure garment workshops and one-on-one training for plastic surgeons. Additionally, we will train 500 first responders via a 3D burn training app.