Frequently asked questions

SURGhub, the UN Global Surgery Learning Hub, is an online learning platform for surgical care teams. It offers 140+ courses to more than 67,000 learners in 219 countries and territories.

It brings together courses from universities, professional societies, and non-governmental organisations in one place, with a focus on health workers in low- and middle-income countries. SURGhub is a joint initiative by the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), supported by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and in association with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation.

SURGhub is operated by the GSF.

SURGhub is a joint initiative by the GSF and UNITAR, supported by RCSI, and in association with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation. The courses come from content providers, including universities, professional societies, and non-governmental organisations. You can find them all under Providers in the main menu.

Anyone working in or alongside surgical care, including surgeons, anaesthetists, obstetricians, nurses, perioperative staff, non-clinical staff, and community health workers, especially in resource-limited settings. Each course page says who the course is designed for. Most courses assume some clinical knowledge.

All courses go through a quality review by three committees: the Project Scope Committee, which defines the educational aims and target learners; the Content Committee, which selects high-quality and appropriate content; and the Technical Committee, which checks technical and legal standards such as copyright.

About 100 volunteer reviewers support the committees. You can meet them on the About page.

Creating a SURGhub account is free, and all courses are currently free to take.

We value financial contributions from anyone who would like to support surgical training. You can give through the GSF donation page.

Most courses are in English. Some are also available in French, Spanish, and Arabic. We are working on making more courses available in other languages. Each course card in the catalogue shows when a course is in another language.

Yes. Most courses are self-paced, so you can start, pause, and come back at any time, and your progress is saved. If a course includes live sessions, the course page says so.

Learners who complete a course receive a downloadable United Nations certificate of completion, signed by UNITAR and the content provider. To get it, complete every activity in the course, then claim the certificate in the final activity.

The certificate confirms that the learner took part in the course. It is not a qualification or a licence to practise.

Anyone, including an employer or an accrediting body, can check a SURGhub certificate on the certificate verification page.

Some courses are marked CME/CPD on the course page. A course does not need to be formally pre-accredited for you to log it as learning, though. Many licensing boards, specialty bodies, and CPD systems let you log relevant self-directed learning, based on the time you spent and your own records.

In many cases, that means you can log a course you finish on SURGhub as self-directed learning, using the time you spent and your SURGhub certificate as evidence, as long as your board or body accepts this type of activity. If you are unsure, ask your licensing board or specialty body what it accepts.

Each course remains the property of the content provider that created it, as shown on the course page.

Each content provider has its own SURGhub page listing all its courses. Choose Providers in the main menu, then select the provider's name.

Yes. The SURGhub app is available on iOS and Android.

Yes. In the SURGhub mobile app, you can download course content and use it later without an internet connection.

SURGhub works on most mobile data and broadband connections. Most course content is text, images, and short videos. Videos use the most data. To save data, download course content in the SURGhub mobile app while you are on Wi-Fi, and use it later offline. If your connection drops, your progress is saved and you can continue where you left off.

The Need help? page explains how to reset your password, update your profile, correct the name on your certificate, and what to do if an activity is not marked complete. For anything else, email info@surghub.org.

Contact us at info@surghub.org or complete the course submission form. Content providers keep full ownership of their content, and benefit from an established learner base, course analytics, and instructional design support.

If you have an idea for a course but no materials yet, contact us and we can discuss how to develop it with you.

Yes. Email the topics you would like to learn about to info@surghub.org.

Join the SURGhub Ambassadors programme. Ambassadors share SURGhub with colleagues and institutions, and receive certificates and recognition for their work. Sign in to your SURGhub account, then apply on the Ambassadors programme page.

We welcome donations from individuals. They help us keep courses free to take, add new courses, and make more courses available in other languages. You can give through the GSF donation page.

We also welcome institutional supporters. If your organisation would like to support SURGhub, contact us at info@globalsurgeryfoundation.org.

Email info@surghub.org.