Thank you for helping us to reach 22% of our goal for the SMED Visiting Scholar Project!  

With this update, we wanted to provide more information on the physician chosen to visit Pittsburgh and train in our renowned Temporal Bone Course.

Dr. Alene Meshesha is only one of fourteen ear, nose, and throat (ENT) physicians servicing the entire country of Ethiopia (large cities, as well as the rural areas)!  In addition to treating patients, he also oversees their residency program, ensuring that the skills he will learn during the Temporal Bone course at the University of Pittsburgh will be shared with the physicians and residents.  This unique opportunity to share the high-level care commonly available in the United States with developing countries is only possible through your generous contributions.

Approximately $5,000 is needed to fund a two-week stay, including airfare, housing, meals, the fee for the Temporal Bone course and other expenses. We intend to bring two fellows each year to Pittsburgh to train and develop their skills. All money raised will be put toward the scholarship program - it will not be directed anywhere else.

Society for Middle Ear Disease (SMED)

In the Fall of 2011, Dr. Charles Bluestone, a pioneer in pediatric otolaryngology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, organized a group of individuals interested in making a global impact to improve the health of individuals battling otitis media in developing countries.  The Society for Middle Ear Disease (SMED) assists doctors from countries with limited resources to travel to the United States for an intensive training course. 

As a result of the international network of Advisors created by SMED, we are able to understand the needs of fellow otolaryngologists, residing in the developing countries, where otitis media is widespread. In order to provide the best care for their pediatric patients and perform more complicated surgeries, the physicians are in need of greater surgical training. Our solution is to develop a visiting scholar program here at the University of Pittsburgh, enabling one or two physicians to travel to Pittsburgh each year to receive specialized training from our staff of experts. A two-week training program will allow these physicians to hone their skills, which they can take back to their home countries and use to help the children they treat each day.

How you can help

1. Donate! Your donation to the SMED Visiting Scholar Program will allow one or two doctors this year to travel to Pittsburgh for two weeks, participate in the highly sought-after Temporal Bone Course with University of Pittsburgh physicians, along with additional shadowing and opportunities to practice surgical techniques.

2. Share our story and our crowdfunding page with your friends, families, and professional networks!

Visit the SMED website to learn more: www.societyformiddleeardisease.org

The SMED Visiting Scholar Project has been live for a few days now and we have already reached 20% of our goal! Thank you so much for donating already!

Your support will allow us to start the conversation with an international physician regarding a visit to Pittsburgh to participate in a two-week training program with our expert physicians in the Department of Otolaryngology. We are thrilled to start the process of selecting a candidate and will provide updates as we progress towards establishing the scholarship.

We need your help to continue the momentum! We hope each one of you will share the link to our project page: http://engage.pitt.edu/smed with friends, family and other networks. In order to make this easier for you, we have created a sample email that you can simply paste into the body of an email and send along to whoever might be able to help.

Dear [friend],

I am involved in a University of Pittsburgh-based project called the Society for Middle Ear Disease Visiting Scholar Project. This is a cause that is so important to me, because children around the world are at risk for serious complications from middle ear disease and even death. There is a great need for more doctors who can treat these children, and there is a need to provide training opportunities for doctors around the world to increase their knowledge of treating ear disease. The University of Pittsburgh aims to bring a physician from a developing country to Pittsburgh to train and shadow our experts in this field, so that they can return home with better skills to combat this widespread health problem that causes disease and death in children worldwide.

The Society for Middle Ear Disease Visiting Scholar project is a crowdfunding opportunity that I chose to participate in, because I know that even the smallest donations can make a huge difference in reaching our goal. All of the funds raised during the campaign will go toward funding the physician’s trip and time in Pittsburgh. Our project has just entered its ‘live’ phase and runs through Friday, September 2nd. I hope you will consider joining me in support of this project and donate today.

For more information on the Society for Middle Ear Disease, please visit www.societyformiddleeardisease.org

With gratitude,

[name]

Together, we can make this project a success!