The Straight Caribbean Spine Foundation was incorporated on August 18, 2006. As founder and chairman of the Straight Caribbean Spine Foundation, Dr. Robert L. Brady has come to realize his dream to help impoverished children with complex spinal conditions on the island of Jamaica.
With much support, Dr. Brady has organized a United States team, consisting of fellow spine surgeon Dr. Justin Bundy, nurses, scrub technicians, neuromonitors, implant coordinators, and implant company representatives. With collaboration from Dr. Dayanand Sawh and Dr. Kenneth Vaughn, the Jamaican ministry of health and ministry of finance, local Jamaican orthopaedic surgeons, anesthetists and nurses, this project has provided safe and comprehensive care to these precious children. With their extensive spinal deformity expertise, Dr. Brady and Dr. Bundy have maintained the longest running and successful scoliosis program on the island of Jamaica
The team from the United States makes semiannual trips to Jamaica so as to lead a specialty clinic which sees and exams the most complicated cases of spinal deformities throughout the island and to prioritizes the most severe patients. During the remainder of the week, the children deemed most urgent are operated upon. The clinic is run through Bustamante Hospital for Children. The surgeries are performed at Bustamante Hospital for Children and University of West Indies Hospitals in Kingston, Jamaica.
Teaching is an important aspect of these trips. This is accomplished through surgical instruction and didactic conferences. The foundation has become critical to the University of West Indies Orthopaedic Surgery residency program. These charitable missions would not be possible without the support and generous donation of one of the most innovative surgical implant manufacturers in the world, Globus Medical.