Dr. Coleen Sabatini is a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, with a practice emphasis on trauma and clubfoot/foot deformities. She has been a member of the J.Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society since 2005 and became one of the first two resident board members in 2007. She has served on the JRGOS Board since that time.
TheOrthopaedicTeam atCoRSURehabilitation Hospital in Uganda:From Left to Right: Drs. MosesFishaMuhumuza, Edgar K, Coleen Sabatini, EmmanuelEwochu, EstherAkello, JudithNassaazi,AhkmedMayanja, AugustineBukulu, andEmmaneulGidudu.
Dr. Sabatini’s research and advocacy efforts focus on improving access to, and quality of, musculoskeletal care for children, particularly for those in lower-resource settings. Although she has had the privilege to teach and/or work in many countries, including Nepal, India, Philippines and Dominican Republic, her international work has primarily been based in Uganda. Given a long interest in working in East Africa, she first went on an educational trip to Uganda in 2013 with pediatric orthopaedic surgeon Norgrove Penny, MD. With that first teaching (and learning!) trip, Dr. Sabatini became very interested in pediatric orthopaedic research and education in the country and began to work with colleagues in Uganda to vision a program. In 2015, she started a research program to study neglected surgical conditions and to help build pediatric musculoskeletal research capacity. One major focus of her research has been on musculoskeletal disabilities related to intramuscular injections (often given for treatment of malaria) that affect thousands of children in Uganda.
Coleen Sabatini, MD becoming a Fellow (by election) of the the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (CoSECSA), while celebrating her colleagues and fellows Dr. EstherAkelloand Dr. EmmanuelEwochupassing their FCS in PediatricOrthopaedicSurgery exams and becoming fellows of COSECSA as well.
She also worked with colleagues in Uganda to identify areas of training they wanted in order to expand their skill sets and provide a greater array of care for patients. Recognizing that a few short trips a year was not sufficient to achieve meaningful impact, in 2019 Dr. Sabatini re-negotiated her position at UCSF in order to spend approximately 4 months a year working in Uganda which has allowed much more integration into the team and collaboration on education and research projects. Recently, with others from POSNA, Dr. Sabatini was faculty for a COEDN-sponsored pediatric orthopaedic fellowship based at CoRSU Hospital and led weekly on-line educational conferences during COVID restrictions. Currently with colleagues in Uganda, she is doing sustainability planning to ensure an ongoing fellowship (including current weekly teaching conferences) and expansion of pediatric orthopaedic education in the country, while also continuing her long-standing research and advocacy workto address neglected surgical conditions.
Dr. Coleen Sabatini scrubbed in with colleague Dr. JudithNassaazi
Through collaboration with many talented and dedicated Ugandan colleagues, Dr. Sabatini is working to strengthen pediatric musculoskeletal care for children in Uganda. Dr. Sabatini serves as a Co-Director of the UCSF Institute of Global Orthopaedics and Traumatology (IGOT) and Associate Director of the UCSF Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) and is involved in numerous education, advocacy, and research efforts focused on global surgery/health equity through these entities. She also recently became the Director of Global HELP – a free online educational resource for those providing pediatric surgical care around the world.
Orthopaedic, nursing and rehab team members having a joyful moment with a patient.
