My trip to northern Iraq in March was bittersweet. Teaching orthopaedic surgeons the SIGN technique to correct deformity and heal their patients' fractures was sweet. Thirty surgeons from Iraq were present to learn the technique.

The bitter part of the trip for me was that we did not have the equipment to help approximately two thirds of the patients who came to our clinic. Their fractures had been treated with external fixation because they were infected or had bone loss. They have been traveling around Iraq trying to find treatment for their painful fractures. SIGN is now looking for partners to join us in creating a program fracture clinic in Iraq. SIGN engineers are inventing new methods to treat these fractures.