Premium Care Kids
Five Star Cleft Care™
Premium Care Kids is a nongovernmental, nonprofit foundation based in Cartagena, Colombia. We are focused on providing gold standard treatment to children with cleft lip, cleft palate, and other conditions that can be cured through plastic surgery and comprehensive care. Our surgeons are recognized worldwide for their contributions to cleft lip and cleft palate surgery and have developed past projects that redefined numerous aspects of cleft care in developing regions. We are now pleased to offer this expertise and commitment at our state-of-the-art facilities in Cartagena, and our team of multidisciplinary providers is excited to offer all children the opportunity for physical correction, rehabilitation, and spiritual healing to become their very best.
Challenge
Cleft lip and cleft palate are a major public health problem affecting 1 in every 500 children worldwide. Without proper surgical care and rehabilitation, these children are sentenced to lives of neglect, prejudice, an isolation. The burden also affects the entire family unit, and patients in Colombia regularly suffer from untreated clefts throughout their whole lives. The problem is immense in scope and scale with approximately 14,000 patients affected by cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities in the Caribbean region of Colombia alone.
Colombia Caribbean Coast
- 9.7 million people spread across 8 departments and 197 municipalities.
- 14,000 patients with cleft lip and cleft palate, and 300 new cases born every year.
- Zero permanent multidisciplinary cleft teams providing care.
- Care almost exclusively through medical missions and disjointed providers
Help us to give more Smiles
Your support and contributions will allow us to achieve our goals and improve more kids lives! Your generous donation will fund our mission.
Our Dream
Commitment
With timely surgical intervention and specialized multidisciplinary care, these children can be corrected completely and go on to live normal and productive lives. Premium Care Kids was created to reflect the very best of medicine, offering a highly skilled and coordinated team providing comprehensive services including nutrition, surgery, speech therapy, audiology, dentistry, orthodontics, otolaryngology, child psychology, and social services. Services are provided to patients regardless of socioeconomic status through the generosity of our partners and donors.
Experience
Dr. Alex Campbell and Dr. Carolina Restrepo are board certified plastic surgeons and internationally recognized for their contributions to cleft lip and cleft palate surgery and to global surgery. Together they served as founding medical directors of the Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Center in Assam, India which has gone on to treat more than 20,000 patients. They served as a Senior Medical Advisors to Operation Smile, where they designed the Cleft Surgery Training Program and the Surgical Outcomes Program. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Restrepo are both Clinical Assistant Professors of Surgery at Penn State University and serves as Medical Officers for Mobile Surgery International and Medical Advisors to the United States Embassy in Colombia.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Mackay D, Sherman R, Varma A, Ayala R, Sarma H, Deshpande G, Magee B. Scalable, Sustainable Cost Effective Surgical Care: A Model for Safety and Quality in the Developing World. Part I: Challenge and Commitment. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1674–1679.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Mackay D, Sherman R, Varma A, Ayala R, Sarma H, Deshpande G, Magee B. Scalable, Sustainable Cost Effective Surgical Care: A Model for Safety and Quality in the Developing World. Part II: Program Development and Quality Care. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1680–1684.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Mackay D, Sherman R, Varma A, Ayala R, Sarma H, Deshpande G, Magee B. Scalable, Sustainable Cost Effective Surgical Care: A Model for Safety and Quality in the Developing World. Part III: Impact and Sustainability. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1685–1689.
Scalable
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Sustainable
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Campbell A, Sherman R. Global Cleft Care. In: Losee JE, Kirschner RE, eds. Comprehensive Cleft Care 2nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2015.
Campbell A, Kreshanti P. Comprehensive Cleft Care Centers: Scalable, Sustainable, and Cost Effective Surgical Care. In: Swanson J, ed. Global Cleft Care for Low Resource Settings. New York: Springer; 2020.
Alkire B, Vincent J, Meara J, et al. Benefit-Cost Analysis for Selected Surgical Interventions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. In: Essential Surgery: Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 1). Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2015 Apr 2. Chapter 21.
Nagengast E, Caterson EJ, Magee W, Hatcher K, Ramos M, Campbell A. Providing More Than Health Care: The Dynamics of Humanitarian Surgery Efforts on the Micro-economy; Comparing a Comprehensive Cleft Care Center with Mission Model. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1622–1625.
Hackenberg B, Ramos M, Campbell A, Resch, Howaldt HP, Caterson EJ. Measuring and Comparing the Cost-Effectiveness of Surgical Care Delivery in Low-Resource Settings: Cleft Lip and Palate as a Model. The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2015 Jun;26(4):1121-5.
Ramos M, Hackenberg B, Caterson EJ, Campbell A, Sharma H, Magee WP. A Cost-Effective Projection Model for Basic and Continuous Surgical Care in India. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 2014 Oct; 214(4):e43.
Surgical Outcomes Program
Standardized, timely, and cost effective evaluation of all surgical cases performed by Premium Care Kids, and reporting of results back to surgeons and to the organization.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Deshpande G, Mongiello S, Tredway C, Wendby L, Schonmeyr B. Validation of a Cleft Severity Index for Grading the Severity of Primary Unilateral Cleft Lip and Nose Deformities by Surgeons and Laypersons. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. 2017 Sep 13; 5(9): e1479.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Deshpande G, Tredway C, Mongiello S, Patzer R, Wendby L, Schonmeyr B. Validation of a Surgical Outcomes Evaluation Scale for Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair by Surgeons and Laypersons. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. 2017, Sep 13; 5(9): e1472.
Campbell A, Restrepo C, Park E, Navas G, Deshpande G, Swanson J, Schonmeyr B, Wendby L, Ayala R. Influence of Severity on Aesthetic Outcomes of Primary Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair: A Review of 1,823 Patients. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. 2019 Jan; 7(1): e2083.
Education and Training
Knowledge is power, and we are committed to education and training that will make a wider impact. Our surgeons have developed unique programs to train surgeons in optimal techniques in cleft lip and cleft palate surgery. From the fundamentals through advanced techniques, they teach a rigorous approach to quality cleft care, with systems, protocols, and techniques backed by more than 10,000 cases of experience. Our programs have trained dozens of surgeons from developing countries, who have taken these skills back to their communities to provide excellence in comprehensive cleft care.
Campbell A, Sherman R, Magee WP. The Role of Humanitarian Missions in Modern Surgical Training. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 2010 Jul;126(1):295-302.
Campbell, A. Sullivan, M. Sherman, R. Magee, W. The Medical Mission and Modern Cultural Competency Training. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 2011 Jan. 212(1):124-9
McCullough M, Campbell A. Cleft Surgeon Training Models. In: Swanson J, ed. Global Cleft Care for Low Resource Settings. New York: Springer; 2020.
Nagengast E, Ramos M, Sarma H, Deshpande D, Hatcher K, Magee W, Campbell A. Surgical Education Through Video Broadcasting: An Experience from Guwahati, India. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1619–1621.
Campbell A. Disruptive Innovation in Surgical Education. The Journal of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgery. 2016 Feb;1(1):6e-7e.
Jones C, Campbell A, Magee W, Ayala R, Mackay D. The Expanding Role of Education and Research in International Healthcare. Annals of Plastic Surgery. 2016 May;76 Suppl 3:S150-4
Essentials of Cleft Surgery
Essentials of Cleft Surgery is a surgical handbook that covers surgical treatment of cleft lip and palate in a compact, clear, and concise format. Developed as a how-to manual of quality cleft surgery, the bullet-point outline format conveys information consistently and concisely. High quality figures, illustrations, and photos throughout provide intimate visual detail of the concepts and techniques presented in the text. The entire text is available online, and generous financial support from Premium Care Plastic Surgery® allows us to provide vital educational material to trainees free of cost.
Park E, Restrepo C, Wong K, Campbell A. Outcome Assessment. In: Swanson J, ed. Global Cleft Care for Low Resource Settings. New York: Springer; 2020.
Park E, Deshpande G, Schonmeyr B, Restrepo C, Campbell A. Optimizing Outcomes in Cleft Surgery. In: Gülşen A, ed. Current Treatment of Cleft Lap and Palate. London: IntechOpen; 2019.
Park E, Restrepo C, Deshpande G, Schonmeyr B, Campbell A. Improved Cleft Lip Outcomes at a Surgical Specialty Hospital in the Developing World. Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal. 2018, Jan 1.
Deshpande G, Campbell A, Restrepo C, Jagtap R, Dobie H, Keanan T, Sarma H. Early Complications After Cleft Palate Repair: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis of 709 Consecutive Patients. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1614–1618.
Schonmeyr B, Wendby L, Campbell A. Early Surgical Complications After Primary Lip Repair: A Report of 3108 Consecutive Patients. Cleft Palate Craniofacial Journal. 2014 Oct 6.
Aznar M, Schönmeyr B, Echaniz G, Nebeker L, Wenby L, Campbell, A. Role of Postoperative Antimicrobials in Cleft Palate Surgery: Prospective, Double Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Study in India. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. 2015 Jul;136(1):59e-66e.
Schonmeyr B, Restrepo C, Wendby L, Gillenwater J, Campbell A. Lessons Learned from Two Consecutive Cleft Missions and the Impact of Patient Education. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2014;25: 1610–1613.
Schonmeyr B, Wendby L, Sharma M, Restrepo C, Campbell A. Limited Chances of Speech Improvement after Late Cleft Palate Repair. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2015 Jun;26(4):1182-5.
Schonmeyr B, Wendby L, Sharma M, Jacobson L, Restrepo C, Campbell A. Speech and Speech Related Quality of Life after Late Palate Repair: A Patient's Perspective. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. 2015 Jul;26(5):1513-6.