Surgery's role in addressing population health needs.

There is a large and unacceptable burden of death and disability from conditions that are treatable by surgery. Several global efforts to address this burden have included the World Health Assembly resolution (WHA68.15) on emergency and essential surgical care, the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, and the Disease Control Priorities project. On a country level, progress can be made in almost any location by taking a logical approach that includes defining the most costeffective surgical interventions that can and should be made available to anyone in a given country, identifying and addressing the barriers to such care that often include finding ways to address financial barriers, and developing monitoring mechanisms to ensure that access to quality care is indeed being achieved. To accomplish these goals, there is a need for collaborative work by the fields of surgery and public health.