About The Hendren Project

Mission

The Hendren Project (THP) mission is to provide sponsor-supported digital resources that enable a global pediatric surgical community to help one another better serve children with complex surgical issues throughout their lives. The digital resources are provided to THP members without charge through the THP website.

THP was launched in January 2016.

Success of the Mission

  • Provides through its digital resources, educational webinars, and social media outreach an internationally recognized innovative online community for health care providers in pediatric surgery and urology to participate directly in collaborating, sharing, and educating peers on best ways to treat complex surgical conditions in children.
  • Retains a group of world-renowned surgical experts in selected fields within the specialty and seeks to cover challenging surgical issues encountered by practitioners in these specialties.
  • Has advanced and expanded the access of pediatric surgeons and urologists throughout the world to recognized experts and current treatment strategies in selected pediatric surgical fields, thus creating a truly unique international collaborative community.

THP Background

W. Hardy Hendren III, M.D., was considered by many to be one of the leading pediatric surgeons of his generation. An important legacy of Dr. Hendren's career was his commitment to the education and training of those who care for sick children and his firm belief that knowledge and expertise must be widely shared, so that more patients can benefit from the experiences of medical professionals everywhere. This is the motivation for The Hendren Project (THP). THP officially launched in January 2014, and the impact of THP has been rapidly growing.

THP began as an online archive of the research of Dr. W. Hardy Hendren and evolved into a content management system that networked Dr. Hendren’s research and child patient cases with current research and live discussions on challenges that pediatric surgeons and urologists encounter daily. THP has become an important online resource for an international community of medical professionals to share their professional experiences and to discuss how best to treat challenging complex surgical cases in children

THP Community

The Hendren Project community is now more than 6,200 members from 147 countries. Content and events are available without charge to registered users. There is no charge for membership. Approximately eighty percent of new members come from the non-US, international community. The THP community is among the largest international professional online communities of pediatric surgeons and urologists.

THP Digital Resources

THP builds upon Dr. Hendren's enduring commitment to educating peers by providing web-based digital resources as part of our content aggregation platform for the pediatric surgery and urology caregiver community. Examples are:

  • Web and content management system of surgical topics
  • Patient registry databases and patient case indexes for compiling patient case data and reporting on complex cases
  • One-to-one and one-to-many multimedia communications tools for group discussions (online journal clubs, online registry clubs, podcasts, webcasts, and roundtable discussions)

THP is an easy-to-use platform that aggregates and categorizes links to high-quality, current research and educational information identified by expert editors who are active surgeons practicing in each topic area. THP members can access a wealth of current, highly pertinent information from a central location. A team of editors, recognized experts in their subject areas, identifies topics and resources that are relevant to the current needs of surgeons and caregivers.

Some examples include:

  • Conference presentations that address controversies and challenges of complex medical conditions in children
  • Content-specific links to major textbooks and journal publications
  • Links to podcasts and webinars
  • Informative resources that educate families beyond general descriptions of conditions and treatments
  • Aggregated Twitter feeds and other social media channels that keep pulse of news, events, and developments in each topic area

THP Information Management Strategy

THP has focused on carefully chosen, pertinent topics within pediatric surgery and pediatric urology and has built Surgical Centers around these topics. Each Surgical Center is under the direction of an Editor and Editorial Board recognized as experts in those topic areas.

For each Surgical Center, THP organizes information from trusted sources in a variety of formats and from a variety of locations. Information is organized by topic, by type of digital resource, and by where information fits into the treatment workflow. Finally, the information and digital resources are networked to inform an online community where medical professionals share and discuss patient-case challenges and treatment strategies in a private online setting.

As a result, a wealth of networked digital information and resources is available in one central location. THP provides ways for the community to connect and interact in real-time, to ask questions about treatments and techniques, and to share direct experiences.  

THP Learning Environment Strategy

THP provides an unstructured learning environment, utilizing the aggregation platform we have built. THP aggregates information and information types (for example, journal articles, textbooks, online lectures, news, and web pages) so that members have easy access to a wide variety of relevant content, resources, and tools. THP uses descriptive terms–unique to each topic area–to identify and catalog new information.

The content that THP aggregates (for example, web, textbooks, and patient registries) are all learning items necessary to help members stay apprised of developments in their specialty areas. THP also provides digital resources that enable members to share experiences, interact with peers on case reviews, and to form groups for discussion of challenges and treatment strategies. These discussions become part of a shared learning knowledge base on the topic. Although THP does not award CME credits, it provides access to certified CME programs sponsored by learning institutions, hospitals, and professional associations. Our intention is that all members of the pediatric surgery and urology community can use THP resources and tools to prepare for and earn CME credits toward Maintenance of Certification.

Revised 3-20-2023