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Introduction

During the period 1945-2013, 56 theses in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology in low-income countries, were defended at Dutch universities. These theses will be described by numbers and subjects, by continent, by university, and by departments of their PhD-supervisor. In that period two endowed chairs were established which are related to this field. First the chair of International and National Aspects of Safe Motherhood at the VUmc (2007-2012) and second the chair of Tropical Child Health at the AMC (1998-2013). The question is how these endowed chairs have contributed to the production of PhD theses.

Method

The theses were defined as having as subjects obstetrics and/or gynaecology or subjects closely related to these, mainly researched in low-income countries between 1945-2013 and defended at Dutch universities.

Obstetric and gynaecology subjects were defined according to the contents of current textbooks on the subject or well-known textbooks especially focused on the tropical environment.

A search has been done on subject and chairholder of the departments of obstetrics/gynaecology in existing databases of Dutch universities. Controls were performed through the registration of PhD-dissertations by Zuidema (NVTG 1958-1981), Wendte (NvTG-site 2007-2013) and the database of the NVOG (1945-2013).

Table 1 Some characteristics of obstetric/gynaecology theses defended at Dutch universities 1945 – 2013 (N=56)

¹ Since some theses cover more subjects the total of subtopics is > 56.

It was decided to start the analysis in 1945 as being the end of the colonial period and the beginning of the period of development aid. This period has been divided in 1945-1982 and 1983-2013. The reason is that generally speaking in the first period a PhD-project and the subject was often initiated by a PhD-candidate her-/himself, often at their own expense. In the second period PhD-projects have often been part of a wider and officially approved research programme and projects with application procedures for funding.

Results

The findings are presented in Table 1.

The majority of the theses refer to research projects carried out in Africa (40/56, 70.1 %, data not shown); the remaining research has been carried out in Asia, Central America/the Caribbean and Europe.

Discussion

The period 1983-2013 clearly has more dissertations probably due to an improved PhD structure.

The gynaecological subjects mainly deal with reproductive health issues; the majority of the obstetrical theses cover an obstetrical subject with roughly the contents as shown in the overview. In general more often health care issues have been chosen than the health of mother and child itself.

The University of Amsterdam hosted most of the defences like Wendte has already shown in his paper. It is tempting to suggest that PhD infrastructure in Amsterdam with the Royal Tropical Institute and the Departments of Tropical Medicine and the Global Child Health Group has stimulated this. The establishment of endowed Chairs in International and National Aspects of Safe Motherhood at the Free University of Amsterdam (2007) and in Tropical Child Health at the University of Amsterdam (1998) has clearly been successful in contributing to quite a few of the theses.

Many questions are still unanswered. In particular the question how obs.gyn PhD-candidates continued their career. An interesting question is also what happened with their recommendations.

Conclusion

Preparing and subsequently defending a thesis is not an easy thing to do. Especially for young tropical doctors. The workload in hospitals does not leave the doctor much time. The circumstances are difficult and resources limited. It is therefore highly commendable that quite a few have succeeded in doing so. This analysis shows that it has been possible in the past, but also to date.

FUTURE TROPICAL DOCTORS WHO CONSIDER TO ENGAGE ON A PHD-ROUTE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED

This analysis also shows that establishing and supporting an endowed chair in Tropical Obstetrics and Gynaecology or Tropical Child Health, as has been done by the NVTG (Netherlands Society for Tropical Medicine) and The Netherlands Foundation for International Child Health has been successful.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Hans Wendte for his help and suggestions in preparing this analysis and the librarians of the VUmc, the AMC, the S.Lucas Andreas and Spaarne hospitals for their assistance in tracing and recovering these dissertations.