Surgery is an indivisible and indispensable part of health care. SOTA Convoys (SOTAC), working with its partners, provides basic life-saving and life-changing surgical procedures in the areas of surgery, obstetrics, trauma, and anesthesia (SOTA).
Five billion people have no access to surgical care. Eleven percent of the global disease burden can be treated through surgical procedures. More people die from surgical need than AIDs and malaria combined.
Using advances in overloading equipment, communications, and medical technology, SOTAC provides the infrastructure and coordination necessary to increase the presence and professionalism of regional SOTA care in remote or impoverished regions.
In addition to bringing infrastructure to remote places, SOTAC coordinates logistics between several partners. No one institution or agency can bring SOTA care, both procedures and training, to clinically difficult places. It takes a concerted effort by everyone from the Ministry of Health to local NGOs to professional associations to medical schools to corporate suppliers to charitable foundations and donors.
SOTAC, with its like-minded partners, identifies the best infrastructure, destinations, medical practices, staffing, patient population, and procedures, and the best way to coordinate everything from government licensing to post-op care.
This approach increases impact, empowers locals to lead, and teaches the basics of surgical practice — all meeting a dramatic need of behalf of those living in surgical deserts.
Five billion people have no access to surgical care. We’re on a mission to change that.
A SOTA Convoy consists of three MAN HX60 4×4 trucks provided by Overland Travel. One truck carries a 16’ Bliss Mobil Family Unit with kitchen, lavatory, and beds for use as Staff Quarters (SQ). Four to six people can sleep in this staff unit and three to six staffers can sleep in the beds of the cabins of the trucks, thereby accommodating up to twelve convoy team members.
A second truck carries a 16’ fully-equipped Operating Theatre (OT) unit provided by Hospitainer, including anesthesia and sterilization equipment. The third truck carries a Pharmacy unit and Storage (P/S) platform for the Hospitainer inflatable building (HIB) and backup generator. The three units are solar-powered for cooling, water purification, positive pressure, and all needed equipment.
When the SOTAC arrives at its destination, the two clinical trucks (OT and P/S) are positioned and connected with sluices to the HIB. This inflatable building, with a usable footprint of 56 square meters, creates a spacious working area for the SOTAC team, including a pre/post-op area and a waiting area with reception. The staff truck is separate from the HIB. The SOTAC can be fully operational in less than an hour.
The East African Community (EAC) is the regional intergovernmental organization of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and the DRC with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. This region is where SOTAC plans to start. Currently, Kenya is the frontrunner for deployment of the first SOTAC, scheduled for the fall of 2023. With a relatively stable political and economic environment, the country is also home to several past and future potential partners. A second destination is Burundi, because of some key partners there and because of its poverty and need. More countries will be added as resources and partnerships permit.
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Bart Kruijsen, Co-Founder and Executive Director of SOTAC, has vast experience in connecting the dots in complex international environments. With over 80 countries on his list, he is passionate about developing the infrastructure and logistics for advancing SOTA care in remote areas. His professional background in humanitarian travel and mobile field hospitals makes him an expert in getting people and services to the most remote places around the world. He is very excited by the purpose and future plans of SOTAC. Bart holds Master’s degrees in Business Economics from universities in Africa, Europe, and the US, and is based near Amsterdam.
Co-Founder and President
Steve Vryhof, Co-Founder and President of SOTAC, has extensive experience in conceptualizing and starting a variety of educational, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic projects. A former academic, he has traveled extensively and supported humanitarian efforts in several different settings. His two sons, both Emergency physicians and travelers, opened his eyes to the need for basic surgery in the world’s more remote and less developed regions. His background in education, love for travel, and desire to give back, led him to start SOTAC with Bart. Steve holds a PhD in Education from the University of Chicago and is based near Chicago.
Board Member
Felicia Loudon, Board Member, has lived and worked in several countries including Sri Lanka, Oman, Vietnam, and Egypt. Her 20+ years of extensive travel, PR, operations, and event planning experience make her a valuable asset to the SOTAC team.
Board Member
Daniel Vryhof, MD, Board Member, is currently Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine At Columbia University and Assistant Medical Director at the Milstein Emergency Department in New York City. He has extensive on-the-ground experience in global health including work in South Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic, Honduras, Ecuador, the Philippines, Haiti, Somaliland, and Ethiopia. He completed Emergency Ultrasound fellowship at Yale University, Emergency Medicine residency at Spectrum Health-Michigan State University, and Medical School at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Board Member
Joe Esposito, Board Member, is the founder of the Esposito Financial Group, which is a team of professional advisors in the Private Wealth Management division of UBS Financial Services, Inc. Through his twenty-five year career in the financial services industry, Joe has developed significant experience delivering strategic advice to corporations, non-profits and individuals. He is currently a board member of the Hektoen Institute of Medicine (Chicago, IL) and is the former Vice Chair of the board for Fenwick High School (Oak Park, IL). Joe previously acted as Chair of the Finance and Investment committees for Fenwick High School.