The next virtual conference will be held in early 2025 

Stay tuned for Solutions Group applications, opening in October 2024.

Join the Circle of Cleft Professionals to stay up-to-date.

What is it?

The S4CCC conference is an annual virtual event hosted for multidisciplinary CCC leaders worldwide.

Our goal is to collectively identify good practices and solutions to the most pressing problems faced by cleft professionals in resource-constrained settings.

 

Solutions Groups Is a diverse, interdisciplinary and time-limited gathering of select global cleft professionals.

SGs participate in an innovative “sprint” process to collectively prepare and facilitate a public 75-minute Roundtable, followed by documenting their key insights in a collaborative research paper.

Solutions Group (SG) Process

Solutions4CCC Advisors

Dr. Marina Campodonico

Pediatric Dentist, Universidad de Chile

Cleft teams worldwide have been working hard and bravely, facing a never before seen situation that has challenged the way we can deliver cleft care to our patients. Together, supporting each other and exchanging our experiences we will find the way and new solutions. It feels better together.

Dr. Mekonen Eshete

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at the Addis Ababa University School of Medicine.

He serves as the leader of the Yekatit 12 Hospital and Medical College cleft lip and palate unit, Ethiopia’s only full comprehensive cleft care centre. His expertise is in clinical care, research and training. Dr. Mekonen is a long-time partner of Smile Train and Transforming Faces.

Dr. George Galiwango

Head of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department at CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda.

He completed his Higher Surgical Speciality Training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery with COSECSA and serves as a mentor and clinical educator to budding plastic surgeons across Uganda. For over 10 years, Dr. Galiwango has been a Smile Train partner cleft surgeon and senior leader within CoRSU’s Comprehensive Cleft Care team.

Dr. Felicity Mehendale

Plastic, Reconstructive & Cleft Surgeon and leads the Global Cleft Research Programme, University of Edinburgh.
She previously led the East of Scotland Cleft Service. She trained as a doctor and as a general surgeon in Mumbai, India followed by plastic surgery and cleft fellowships in the UK. She is Chair of Cleft 2022 and President of the International Confederation of Cleft Lip & Palate and Related Craniofacial Anomalies (ICCPCA). Her research includes applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to cleft outcomes, cleft epidemiology, perioperative and neonatal care protocols and equity of access to cleft care globally.

Prof. Roopa Nagarajan

Professor and Chairperson at the Dept. of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences & Academic Officer, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India.

She served as the Organizing Secretary of the 13th International Cleft Congress in Chennai, 2017 and is co-author of a book chapter entitled Cleft Palate Speech in the Majority World.  She is a longtime leader in both Smile Train and Transforming Faces’ CCC movements.

Dr. Debbie Sell

Cleft Specialist Speech and Language Therapist & Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (ORCHID) at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.

She co-edited a book on Cleft Care in the Developing World, was a founder of a speech and language therapy training course in Sri Lanka and is a member of CLEFT – Bridging the Gap charity’s Research Steering Group. She is a founder and co-director of Speech@Home.

2023

S4CCC: Covid & Beyond

Past Event

On March 23, 2023 over 130 cleft professionals largely from LMIC backgrounds came together to participate in dialogue and hear from Solutions Groups.

The diverse interdisciplinary Solutions Groups applied sprint methodology over eight weeks to form recommendations on   Three pertinent themes of Comprehensive Cleft Care (CCC).

1. Getting Started with Patient Reported Outcomes,

2. Initiating and Sustaining Parent and Patient Support Groups,

3. Integrating Psychosocial Care Across Cleft Specialities

Available in english, en español, en français 

Guideline Series Cover Graphic

S4CCC: Covid & Beyond

Past Event

On June 2, 2021 over 120 cleft professionals from around the globe came together to collaborate and generate solutions for delivering Comprehensive Cleft Care (CCC) in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) amidst COVID and beyond. 

The International NGO sponsors of the
Circle of Cleft Professionals (CoCP) are proud
to support the S4CCC Conference.