SURG 510: Surgical Care in International Health
Sam Bugis, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Bugis is a General Surgeon with subspecialty training and expertise in Head and Neck and Endocrine Surgery. After General Surgery residency at the University of Alberta, he did a Clinical Fellowship in Head and Neck Surgery at McMaster University and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario and then a research fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas. He has practiced in British Columbia for 30 years. He is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Surgery, UBC. He is a recipient of the General Surgery Teacher of the Year award and was a Fellowship Examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in General Surgery. Dr. Bugis has held numerous leadership positions including Medical Staff President at Royal Columbian Hospital and Chief of Surgery at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, BC and Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton Alberta. He has been Head, Section of General Surgery and Specialist representative on the BCMA Statutory Negotiating Committee. Currently, Dr. Bugis is Vice President, Physician Affairs and Specialist Practice, Doctors of BC.
His interest in Global Surgery was sparked by attending the Bethune Round Table Conference held in Vancouver in 2013. Shortly thereafter he took the Canadian Network for International Surgery’s (CNIS) Essential Surgical Skills Instructor Course and a few months after that was in Moshi, Tanzania for a two week session teaching and supervising that course. Since then, he has visited Developing Countries in Sub Saharan Africa and South America on multiple occasions. He has also obtained the Graduate Certificate in Global Surgical Care from the Branch for Global Surgical Care at UBC. Currently, He is Board Chair of the Canadian Network for International Surgery and a Fellow and Examiner for the College of Surgeon of East, Central and Southern Africa.
Phyllis Kisa, MBChB, FCS ECSA, MMed (Surgery)
Dr. Phyllis Kisa completed medical school at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. She then worked as an intern doctor and as a medical officer (general doctor) in the surgical department at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, Uganda. Following this, she attained her MMED in General surgery from Makerere University and Fellowship in General Surgery of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa. Soon after, started a pediatric surgical fellowship training with the College of Surgeon of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), a hybrid training with part in Uganda and 18 months (2014-mid-2015) at BC children’s hospital in Vancouver, Canada in pediatric general surgery and pediatric urology. She returned to BC Children’s hospital in 2018 to complete a formal clinical fellowship in pediatric urology becoming their first clinical fellow and the first fellowship trained pediatric urologist in Uganda. She is lecturer in pediatric surgery at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala, Uganda, and Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Division of Urology and the Branch of International Surgery. She is keen on fostering training and collaborations, and have a strong interest in research, particularly research into perioperative nutrition.
Jana MacLeod, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), FACS, FRC(ECSA)
Dr. MacLeod is a general surgeon with a sub-specialty in trauma and critical care who presently works in Nairobi, Kenya. Her prior experience includes work as a medical officer in Tanzania, Director of International Research & Partnerships and Assistant Director of Trauma at Emory University, and involvement in many international projects and partnerships throughout East, Central and Southern Africa. At present, Dr. Macleod is part-time faculty at Kenyatta University, where she teaches medical students, performs clinical surgery at the local District Hospital, and is actively contributing to the establishment of post-graduate surgical education. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh as well as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Strathmore University in Nairobi where she is a Co-Investigator on a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded study of the Kenyan blood delivery system.
SURG 512: Global Disability: A Surgical Care Mandate
Esther Chin, MD, MGSC, FRCSC
Dr. Esther Chin is an Obstetrician/Gynaecologist and Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) at McMaster University. She completed her medical school and residency training at McMaster and is the Global Health Lead of the Department of Ob/Gyn. She holds a Master’s in Global Surgical Care from UBC and is also a Content Consultant and Ob/Gyn Lecturer for UBC’s Global Surgery Lab’s Essential Surgical Skills Curriculum in South Sudan. She is a member of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada’s Rwanda Working Group and underwent training in the repair of obstetric fistula in Angola in late 2022. She is also an instructor for the Advances in Labour and Risk Management course. Her areas of interest and research are in obstetric fistula, surgical care systems, maternal morbidity/mortality, medical and surgical education, and capacity building. She has worked clinically in Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Guatemala at district/first-level hospitals as well as at higher level facilities.
Doreen Nakku, MBChB, MMed. ENT
Doreen Nakku is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of ENT Surgery at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) and an ear surgeon at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda. She is also the current Vice chair of the Otolaryngology Society of Uganda and Director of the Temporal Bone Dissection program at MUST. As a physician, Doreen is passionate about community ear and hearing health and improving these services through research and training with purpose to find homegrown solutions suited for her setting and to address myths and misconceptions surrounding modern medicine and surgery. In her tenure as department head, together with her team they continually leverage collaborations with other local and international institutions to improve the MUST-ENT training program through student exchange programs, research and training workshops as well as grow the complexity of quality of clinical care provided to their patients.
Norgrove Penny, CM, MD, FRCSC, FCS(ECSA)
Dr. Penny is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Orthopedics at UBC. He has a Pediatric Orthopedic and sports medicine practice in Victoria, British Columbia. Throughout his career he has had an interest in international orthopedics, particularly in Africa, including practicing for a number of years in Uganda during which he established a country-wide children’s orthopedic rehabilitation program. Currently, Dr. Penny is Medical Advisor for Hope and Healing International and other global surgical organizations through which he consults in low resource countries around the world.
SURG 514: Surgical Care in Humanitarian Disaster Response
Hossam Elsharkawi, PhD
Dr. Hossam Elsharkawi is Regional Director at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – IFRC, Middle East & North Africa.
Previously, Dr Elsharkawi worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop guidance for medical teams responding to health emergencies in armed conflict and insecure environments. He was Vice President for international operations at the Canadian Red Cross and led response operations globally. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia and guest faculty at McGill and McMaster Universities where he teaches disaster response and healthcare in complex humanitarian crises. Twitter @elsharkawi
Ross Brown, OMM, CD, MA, MD, FRCSC, FACS
Dr. Brown is a Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC, and is a practicing general surgeon and trauma surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital. He is also an Associate Medical Director of the Canadian Forces Trauma Training Centre (West). He has completed two tours in Bosnia and three in Afghanistan. In 2010, Dr. Brown was seconded to the Vancouver Olympic Committee to support the Olympic and Paralympic Games, managing the Whistler Polyclinic, which included the Mobile Medical Unit.
Jana MacLeod, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), FACS, FRC(ECSA)
Dr. MacLeod is a general surgeon with a sub-specialty in trauma and critical care who presently works in Nairobi, Kenya. Her prior experience includes work as a medical officer in Tanzania, Director of International Research & Partnerships and Assistant Director of Trauma at Emory University, and involvement in many international projects and partnerships throughout East, Central and Southern Africa. At present, Dr. Macleod is part-time faculty at Kenyatta University, where she teaches medical students, performs clinical surgery at the local District Hospital, and is actively contributing to the establishment of post-graduate surgical education. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh as well as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Strathmore University in Nairobi where she is a Co-Investigator on a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded study of the Kenyan blood delivery system.
SURG 516: Program Planning and Evaluation in Surgical Care Low Resource Settings
Laura May Lee, MSc, PhD
Dr. Laura Lee is a research consultant with over 15 years of experience in strengthening global child, adolescent and youth health programming, protection and services in adversity settings. Specializing in program planning and evaluation, community-based participatory research methodologies, gender, child protection and participation, social justice and health equity, she has designed, implemented and analyzed research projects with children and youth globally, including in humanitarian settings. Dr. Lee has been recognised as a leader among Canadian Women in Global Health. She holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia, and an MSc in International Health (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh). Dr. Lee has regional expertise in East and Southern Africa and has experience in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North and South America.
Shafique Pirani, MBBS, LMCC, FRCSC, ECFMG, ABOS
Dr. Shafique Pirani is a Clinical Professor at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of British Columbia Medical School. Dr Pirani’s major interest is in clubfoot. He is widely known for his clubfoot assessment tool (known as the Pirani Clubfoot Severity Score), for his pioneering work on how the Ponseti Method corrects the clubfoot deformity, and for initiating the movement for the use of the Ponseti Method in developing nations. He is the Project Director for both the Uganda Sustainable Clubfoot Care Project (USCCP) and Sustainable Clubfoot Care in Bangladesh (SCCB). Both are Government of Canada (Global Affairs Canada) supported initiatives to build capacity for sustainable Ponseti clubfoot management throughout their respective countries.
The World Health Organization has recognized the success of USCCP and recommended its model as a way of helping the disabled worldwide. Dr Pirani has been widely recognized for his work. His awards include the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeon’s Humanitarian Award, the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America Humanitarian Award, the Canadian Orthopaedic Association’s Award for Excellence, the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America’s Angie Kuo Award, the University of British Columbia’s Impact in the Community Award, and Fraser Health’s Above and Beyond Award.
Supriya Singh, MD, MSc, FRCSC, GCGSC
Dr. Supriya Singh practices adult and pediatric spine surgery in London, Ontario where she completed her medical school and orthopedic surgery residency training. She completed two spine fellowships in Vancouver, BC in both adult and pediatric spine surgery. Her passion is global surgical care and she completed the Graduate Certificate in Global Surgical Care at UBC. She is currently working with SIGN international to advance spine care globally and is excited to be part of this program.
SURG 517: Clinical Research Methods for Surgical Procedures with Global Surgical Comparisons
Emily Schaeffer, PhD
Emily first joined the department of Orthopaedic Surgery at BCCH in September 2014. She has an extensive background in basic science and translational research as she holds a PhD in Experimental and Molecular Medicine from Dartmouth College. Seeking to expand her knowledge and expertise into the realm of clinical research, Emily worked closely with Dr. Mulpuri to develop and expand their pediatric hip research program, with much of her work focused on the creation and expansion of the International Hip Dysplasia Registry (IHDR), the SCFE Longitudinal International Prospective Registry (SLIP Registry) and the Hip Health Outcomes in Pediatrics (Hip Hope) Network. As Research Director for the Orthopaedic Surgery Department of BC Children’s Hospital, Emily also supports the department as the research program grows by offering high level scientific advice and expertise on study ideas and methodology, and provides feedback on grant applications, manuscripts and protocols.
Over the past six years, the IHDR and SLIP registries have grown to include hospitals and academic centres contributing data from over 30 centres across 5 continents. These studies are the largest prospective registries of their kind in pediatric orthopaedics. These multi-centre assessments of screening and treatment practices for various pediatric hip conditions will be a catalyst in changing current practices and monitoring protocols, impacting thousands of children and families not only here in BC, but around the world.
Godfrey Sama Philipo, MD, MPH, MGSC
Dr. Godfrey Sama Philipo is an MD working as a Research and Patients Outcomes Coordinator at the College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) at the Secretariat office in Arusha, Tanzania. He leads research programs under the RCSI/COSECSA Collaboration Programme as well as the COSECSA-Intuitive Foundation Global Surgery Research Mentorship project. He also supports Children Surgery Research in Tanzania, in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the German Society for Global and Tropical Surgery. Dr Philipo served as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the MUHAS-ORCI-UCSF Cancer Collaboration in Tanzania. He co-coordinated the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA) Global Surgery Small Working Group, and co-founded the International Students Surgical Network (InciSioN). He also worked with Kids Operation Room (KidsOR) to developing a national plan to strengthen paediatric surgical services in Uganda. Dr Philipo completed medical school at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Tanzania, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the Southern Medical University (SMU) in China, a Master of Global Surgical Care (MGSC) from UBC, and a Global Surgery Fellowship from the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) at UCSF. He is currently a Doctoral Research Fellow at University of Cape Town, Global Surgery Division, aiming to further his interests in global surgery research, training and policy, Implementation Science and surgical education.
SURG 518: Surgical Care in Canada’s Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities with Global Comparisons
Nadine Caron, MD, MPH, FRCSC
Dr. Caron is an associate professor in UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Sugery and is teaching in the Northern Medical Program. She has served on numerous committees including the Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Health – Advisory Committee on Provincial Health Goals; British Columbia Medical Association – Committee on Health Promotion; Native Physicians Association of Canada; and is currently Chair of the BC Medical Association’s Committee on Aboriginal Health. Her work involves a variety of audiences and knowledge users including governments, provincial health authorities, national medical organizations, health research funding bodies, and several universities to achieve identified and overlapping objectives.
Ryan Falk, BSc, BA, MD, CCFP(ESS), FCFP, DTM&H, MGSC
Dr. Ryan Falk is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Surgery and a Clinical Instructor in Rural Family Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is a family physician who practices both Enhanced Surgical Skills and Rural Generalist Medicine in the Beaufort Delta Region of the Northwest Territories, where he was the Clinical Lead for Surgical Services for 9 years. Dr. Falk is currently the chair of the Continuing Professional Development Committee for ESS at the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) and the chair of the Member Interest Group in ESS at the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). Having completed the Masters in Global Surgical Care (MGSC) program in 2021, his research interests include rural surgical services in Canada and other high income countries, as well as the role of non-specialist physicians and non-physician clinicians in the provision of surgical care globally. In addition to over a decade of experience in a mostly indigenous region of the Canadian Arctic, he has also been involved in a surgical program in northern Ghana since 2018.
Jason McVicar, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Jason McVicar is Métis from the Red River Settlement in Manitoba. He was born in the Northwest Territories and raised in western Manitoba. He pursued his medical studies at University of Manitoba and anesthesia residency at Queen’s University,followed by a fellowship in regional anesthesia and pain medicine in Toronto.He practiced at The Ottawa Hospital for the past decade and is now an anesthesiologist at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, British Columbia.Jason has worked for Médecins Sans Frontières, has been a trustee of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation, and completed a public policy fellowship with Action Canada. Dr. McVicar was lead author on two CMAJ publications on surgical outcomes for Indigenous Peoples in Canada. He was awarded the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine Social Accountability Award in 2022. Dr. McVicar’s current appointments include membership on the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists Pain Committee, co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Circle at The Ottawa Hospital, co-chair of the Collaborative Advisory Group for Rural Anesthesia for the Canadian Anesthesiologists Society, and chair of the Global and Rural Health Committee with the Academic Canadian Universities Departments of Anesthesia. Jason is the proud father of two loud children who has selfishly taught downhill skiing so he can return to the slopes after a decade hiatus. He perpetually pesters his kids by over photographing them with long lenses and can be occasionally found taking pictures of other slower moving things
SURG 542: Directed Study in Global Surgical Care
Robert Baird, MSc, MDCM, FRCPSC, FACS
Dr. Baird is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Surgery, Surgical Director of the Pediatric Trauma Program, and Fellowship Program Director at the University of British Columbia. He holds double Master’s degrees from McGill University (Experimental Surgery) and Oxford University (Evidence-Based Health Care). He worked in Kenya while completing his surgical training and currently supports the Uganda-Vancouver surgical partnership through in-person camps, virtual teaching and curriculum building for learners from low-resource environments. He is particularly focused on bidirectional opportunities to enhance surgical training as well as evidence-based capacity building.
Charles Mock, MD, PhD, FACS
Dr. Mock has training as both a trauma surgeon and an epidemiologist. He worked as a surgeon in Ghana for 4 years, including at a rural hospital (Berekum) and at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi). From 2005-7, he served as Director of the University of Washington’s Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (HIPRC). From 2007-10 he worked at World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, where he was responsible for developing WHO’s trauma care activities. In 2010, he returned to his position as Professor of Surgery (with joint appointments as Professor of Epidemiology and Professor of Global Health) at the University of Washington.
His main interests include the spectrum of injury control, as it pertains to countries at all economic levels: surveillance; injury prevention; pre-hospital care; and hospital-based trauma care. He is the Past President (2013-2015) of the International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care (IATSIC). He served as co-chair of the American Surgical Association Working Group on Global Surgery (2017-2019) and as Associate Editor of the World Journal of Surgery (2011-2022). He currently serves on the editorial board of Injury: International Journal of the Care of the Injured.
SURG 560: Global Surgical Care Field Practicum
Emilie Joos, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Joos is a Clinical Assistant Professor with UBC’s Department of Surgery. Dr. Joos is a practicing general surgeon and trauma surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital. At the completion of her surgical critical care training, she was appointed as a clinical instructor in trauma at University of Southern California. She is an instructor for the Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma and an Advanced Trauma Life Support course director. She has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières since 2015 and was deployed several times in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2017 she completed her Emergency Response Unit training with the Canadian Red Cross and is now on the roster for deployment. Dr. Joos is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada in General Surgery and obtained her Critical Care accreditation from the Royal College in 2014. She is a Fellow of the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Joos is a course director for the Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma, the Definitive Surgical Trauma Care and the Advanced Trauma Life Support courses. She is the provincial chair for ATLS in British Columbia and the Surgical Care Surgery Fellowship program director at UBC, in addition to being the Associate Medical Director at the Branch for Global Surgical Care.
Ruth Vilayil, MD, FRCSC
Dr. Vilayil graduated as a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of Alberta and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada since 2015. She is a recipient of the David Cook award for Curricular Innovation at the University of Alberta. She spent part of her training internationally in New York, USA, India, and east Africa.
She worked for 3 years in Kampala, Uganda where she was the Head of Department at a renowned British-run international women’s hospital and Consultant OBGYN at The Surgery Uganda urgent care centre. She has a broad interest in the areas of surgical education, quality improvement and global health.
Dr Vilayil is now Clinical Assistant Professor at UBC, practicing community Gynecologic Surgeon and Obstetrician in Maple Ridge, BC and the Regional Division Head – Gynecology for Fraser Health Authority. She holds a Physician Quality Improvement Certificate in collaboration with UBC CPD, Physician Leadership Program Certificate from UBC Sauder School of Business, and is a reviewer for MicroResearch, which seeks to improve local research capacity in Africa.
Adjunct Faculty
Sister Mary Margaret Ajiko, MBChB, MMed (Surgery)
Dr. Sister Mary Margaret Ajiko joined Makerere University as a government-sponsored student and got her first degree in October 2000, where Sister Margaret went on to do medical training, with an internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital Nsambia-Kampala. She then worked as Medical Superintendent at Kitovu Hospital in Masaka, and then completed her MSc in Surgery at Makerere University. Dr. Sister Margaret Ajiko was posted again at Kitovu Hospital in Masaka. She was actively involved in teaching medical students, became an Executive member of the Association of Surgeons of Uganda, and served as Assistant Editor. Today, Dr. Ajiko serves in a rural setting as a Consultant Surgeon at Soroti Regional Referral Hospital as a general surgeon often caring for patients presenting with a breadth of surgical conditions across orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, paediatric surgery, urology, and ENT. Sister Margaret performs her medical/surgical duties with joy, while advancing academics with medical students, interns and registrars. Dr. Ajiko has proudly supervised more than 25 summer students from UBC as part of the Soroti Children’s Project.
Mary T. Nabukenya, MBChB, MMed (Anesthesia and Critical Care), FCA(ECSA)
Dr. Mary T. Nabukenya is a Ugandan paediatric anaesthesiologist. She attended medical school at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where she went on to do her Masters’ Degree training in Anaesthesiology and Critical Care. Shortly afterwards, she did her fellowship training in paediatric anaesthesia at BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada in 2015. She returned to Uganda to continue working at the Mulago National Referral Hospital, which is also the teaching hospital for Makerere University. She is a lecturer in the Department of Anaesthesia, Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She has keen interest in advancement and capacity building in paediatric anaesthesia and critical care in Uganda and the East African region, as well as safe and quality anaesthesia practice for all. Dr. Nabukenya is involved in clinical research with her UBC colleagues on studies which serve to evaluate and advance safe anesthetic care for children.