For 5 billion people on this planet, timely access to safe surgical services is in danger, and shortages of healthcare staff resulting in significant peri-operative morbidity and mortality cases. As such, expanding and strengthening the surgical health workforce are two of the most important health policy issues for decisions makers in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). At first sight, investing in minimally invasive surgery should not be prioritized as it may distract from urgent basic health needs. However, there are distinct advantages to laparoscopy compared to open surgery, which may be more pronounced in LMICs. Consequently, surgeons and other members of surgical teams apply contextually relevant, local innovations to enable minimally invasive surgical technology to be deployed effectively in low resourced settings. This has recently been picked up by major players in laparoscopic surgical field.
