Geneva, 20 November, 2025 - In partnership with the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) published its war surgery courses on SURGhub - the United Nations Global Surgery Learning Hub. Three ICRC online courses - Nursing Care in War, Anaesthesia in War, and Fundamentals of War Surgery - thus become instantly accessible across more than 200 countries and territories.
“The training resources reflect ICRC experience and expertise in the principles and practice of war surgery. Having them published on a trusted and innovative open access platform such as SURGhub will make this knowledge available to the world and strengthen the capacity of nurses, anaesthetists and surgeons at the frontline of conflict, “ said Dr Rahul Koti, ICRC Chief Surgeon who coordinated the design of the courses with other ICRC experts.
The courses are designed to enable multidisciplinary teams to respond together to the daily realities encountered in conflict and emergency surgical settings. The training material helps them to adapt their professional practice and knowledge to the humanitarian context with limited resources, to provide quality surgical care to weapon-wounded patients, with a comprehensive, integrated and patient-centred approach.
“This partnership brings the ICRC’s unparalleled expertise to SURGhub’s global community of tens of thousands of surgical healthcare workers,” said Dr Geoffrey Ibbotson, Executive Director of the Global Surgery Foundation. “Through SURGhub, these resources will support clinicians working in the most challenging conditions – where safe surgery is often the difference between life and death.”
The three specialized courses are compulsory pre-learning of a broader ICRC face-to-face training programme “Surgical Teams in War“, held at the ICRC Surgical Learning Hub in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and designed for the practitioners of the Global Network for Weapon-Wounded Care; the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, academia, the development sector, non-governmental organizations and humanitarian aid agencies involved in providing hospital and surgical care.
The online components of this training programme are now available to everyone on the SURGhub learning platform, with a registered account and free-of-charge. Upon successful completion of each course, the learners will obtain a certificate.
Since its launch in 2023, SURGhub has grown into a collaborative hub for global surgical education, offering over 100 peer-reviewed courses provided by more than 25 partners. All courses are easily accessible and tailored to low-resource settings, ensuring that surgical knowledge can reach every corner of the world. The Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) is a Geneva-based non-profit organisation dedicated to closing the global gap in surgical access.
