Seven surgeons have been recognised for volunteering and humanitarian efforts around the globe.
The American College of Surgeons’ Board of Governors Surgical Volunteerism and Humanitarian Awards Workgroup recently announced the 2023 ACS/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism and Humanitarian Awards recipients.
The awards are decided through the ACS Health Outreach Programme for Equity in Global Surgery.
Academic Global Surgeon Award
Andrea Parker, MD, FACS, and Robert Parker, MD, FACS, general surgeons in Bomet, Kenya, jointly received the ACS/Pfizer Academic Global Surgeon Award for nearly 10 years spent educating surgical trainees in a medically under-resourced country.
The couple has trained African surgeons to address surgical access gaps through clinical care, education and research.
They also helped develop a web-based, weekly surgical curriculum alongside the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA).
They were instrumental in building an infrastructure to enable education there, with laparoscopic equipment, operating room lights and tables, surgical instruments and retractors. They also advocate globally the importance of academic surgery education.
Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award
Ala Stanford, MD, FACS, a paediatric surgeon in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania, US, received the Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award for ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Her work in the community provided the foundations for improving Covid-19 care in some of the poorest parts of the city – primarily areas populated by people of colour.
She created a grassroots organisation, the Black Doctors Covid-19 consortium, which focused on education, testing, contact tracing and vaccination in communities devoid of access to care and resources. It has served more than 100,000 people.
She has subsequently established the Dr Ala Stanford Centre for Health Equity in Philadelphia’s Allegheny West community, where she works to improve health outcomes and empower individuals to achieve better overall wellbeing.
International Surgical Volunteerism Award
Andrew N Kingsnorth, MB, BS, FACS, a general surgeon in Plymouth, UK, will receive the ACS/Pfizer International Surgical Volunteerism Award for more than 20 years of service providing and coordinating surgical services, primarily for hernia repair worldwide.
Dr Kingsnorth has focused much of his volunteering efforts on treating inguinal hernias – the most common treatable cause of surgical morbidity in men worldwide but often unavailable in rural or under-resourced areas.
He is a founding member of the UK-based charitable organisation Operation Hernia, is the director and administrator of Hernia International and trains surgeons in mesh hernioplasty.
Resident Surgical Volunteerism Award
Youmna A Sherif, MD, a global surgery resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, US, will receive the ACS/Pfizer Resident Surgical Volunteerism Award for 15 years of medical volunteer work in underserved areas worldwide.
Dr Sherif started volunteering before earning her medical degree but continued as a medical student at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, becoming further involved in international volunteerism, particularly in Egypt.
At Alexandria Main University Hospital in Egypt, she researched the iatrogenic spread of hepatitis C and the increased prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma – two conditions uniquely common in the country due to poor sterilisation of vaccination tools and which afflicted her mother, who lived there.
As a resident, she has continued her global surgery work, volunteering in the paediatric surgery service at Uganda’s Mulago Hospital, in the general and bariatric surgery service at the Arab Bariatric & Plastic Centre of Harpur Memorial Hospital in Menouf, Egypt, and as a researcher on optimising the role of non-physician clinicians at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi.
Military Surgical Volunteerism Award
US Air Force Colonel Kerry P Latham, MD, MHPE, FACS, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Washington, DC, will receive the ACS/Pfizer Military Surgical Volunteerism Award for her more than 20 years providing facial reconstructive operations while also serving in the US military.
In her first clinical year of medical school, Dr Latham used her school breaks to visit the Philippines to learn more about global surgery, short-mission healthcare delivery, and global partnership. Her mission in 1998 to Catanduanes, Philippines – two years after beginning her military service – established her decision to pursue surgery and specialise in craniofacial surgery.
She provides acute and chronic cleft care and burn reconstruction, has cared for acute trauma patients and has performed tumour and cancer surgery around the globe.
Dr Latham also created a surgical mission planning document to ensure team and patient safety.
She routinely offers educational series to hospital leaders, providing additional collaboration opportunities for host nation nurses and surgeons. She has worked with national leaders in her volunteer locations to advocate for funds, resources, and surgical and health services placement. She raised funds for physical therapy equipment for paediatric burn victims in Afghanistan and garnered donations for life-changing surgery for a child in Barbados.
Surgical Humanitarian Award
Charles J Filipi, MD, FACS, a general surgeon in Omaha, Nebraska, US, will receive the ACS/Pfizer Surgical Humanitarian Award for nearly 20 years of humanitarian service, providing hernia repair services and encouraging others to volunteer their services in underdeveloped nations.
After working in private practice for 18 years, Dr Filipi joined the faculty of Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, where he pioneered laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, including hernia repair.
Dr Filipi has provided operations and education in developing countries and, with a colleague, arranged for five surgical teams to visit Haiti to offer support after the country’s devastating earthquake.
In 2011, Dr Filipi created two impactful global health programmes – Chronic Care International (CCI) and Hernia Repair for the Underserved.
The organisation has trained 103 surgeons in Haiti, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic to perform the Lichtenstein repair using an ACS-approved operating performance rating scale, with more than 2,000 operations performed by trainees and 5,000 completed by hernia experts in six developing countries.
Dr Filipi initiated a Global Surgery Fellowship at Creighton in 2018. The final 15 months of the two-year fellowship are spent in a developing country’s rural district hospital.
