Catalyzing health systems change: Training traditional bonesetters in Ghana.
Traditional bonesetters learn splinting techniques during the AO Alliance course in Wa, Ghana
Traditional healers and bonesetters play a significant role in sub-Saharan Africa, as they are often the go-to primary healthcare providers in low-income countries and their remote rural areas. This is true especially in Ghana, where, in 2021, there were only 52 trauma and orthopedic surgeons for a population of over 30 million.
“The rate of traditional bonesetter-related limb gangrene, disability, infections, and death in Ghana is alarming, particularly among children,” — Prof. Dominic Konadu-Yeboah
Under his leadership, the AO Alliance launched the Traditional Bonesetter Training Program in Ghana in 2021, with the goals of preventing complications from traditional bonesetter treatments and preventing lifelong disability though fracture care education.
Measurable Impact
With its team of local data collectors, under Yeboah’s supervision, the AO Alliance mapped and recruited traditional bonesetters to participate in the program from three regions across the country: Ashanti, Northern, and Upper West. Since April 2021, six education events have been organized, attracting 197 bonesetters from Kumasi, Tamale and Wa.
Data from Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) reveal an increase in referrals from bonesetters to TTH for the period between April 2021 and April 2022, and a 57 percent decrease in bonesetter-related amputations since the training began.
Regional Associations
The trainings were so well received that bonesetters set up associations in each of the three regions with the help of the AO Alliance and local partners (TTH and KATH). By June 2022, over 200 bonesetters had joined. When a complication is recorded, association leaders trace the responsible bonesetter to provide corrective education and enrollment.
“I decided to do this AO Alliance course to improve what I was doing. I learned a lot. I would like to thank the AO Alliance for bringing this training to the bonesetters, and for the collaboration with the hospitals so that if there are complicated cases that we can’t treat, we refer them to the hospitals for further treatment,”
— Yussif Abudu Babia, Bonesetter from Gwolu
Global Recognition
Prof. Yeboah’s abstract on the program, “Training Traditional Bonesetters in Basic Principles of Fracture Treatment: A Proof of Concept,” has been selected for an Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) 2022 Humanitarian Scholarship Award.