Basic essential surgery can save lives and should be available to all

5 billion people on Earth don't have access to adequate surgical care, as only 3% of the surgeries each year occur on poor countries. In fact, people die everyday from basic surgical needs due to the shortage of surgeons or the cost of surgery. Dr. Ziad Sifri, Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Global Surgery fellowship at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, organizes and plans 2-3 surgical missions annually to deliver free surgical care to underserved communities internationally, through volunteer services. As founding director of International Surgical Health Initiative (ISHI), a humanitarian non-profit organization (501c3) he cofounded in 2009, Dr. Sifri trains medical students and residents mainly at Rutgers to participate in and eventually take charge of surgical missions. Through education, training, and collaboration, Dr. Sifri hopes to not only open up the eyes of young doctors to the global surgical needs and how they can choose to contribute their talents worldwide, but also to establish lasting and trusting relationships with the local hospitals in developing countries.

One of the few medical centers in the US providing opportunities in international surgery, ISHI has had more than 15 residents dispatched on missions in the past five years. In each mission, a team of 12-18 people including residents, medical students, anesthesiologists, nurses, and specialized surgeons would volunteer 1-2 weeks of their time in a developing country to locally operate a minimum of 50 major surgeries per mission, supplying instruments and medication and providing the local staff with training and collaboration to continue providing quality care and knowledge exchange. Some of the countries that Dr. Sifri has built such relationships with include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Peru, the Philippines, and Guatemala. Through this opportunity, medical students and residents who come aboard can learn about the protocols and limitations of performing surgery outside of US, help train local hospital staff and build surgical capacity, and make a direct impact on individuals who could otherwise have died from a simple, easily treatable conditions like hernia, appendix bursts, and fibroids.

Funding will support:

  • Sustaining and expanding the missions: Planning 2-3 missions every year require extensive support for providing medication, supplies, other equipment, and logistics. Adequate funding will help ISHI to strengthen relationships already established with the six aforementioned countries and expand its impact, where needed, in other areas of the world.
  • Providing financial aid for residents and medical students: Residents and medical students pay for their own travels to volunteer abroad, financial aid will greatly help more residents and medical students to get exposed to humanitarian work in global health. Dr. Sifri ultimately hopes to raise awareness of this pressing global health problem and inspire students to make it part of their career to give back the training they have received.
  • Providing fellowship opportunities for residents: There is currently one resident spending a full year as a fellowship dedicated to international surgery, and Dr. Sifri hopes to create more opportunities for residents to commit one year of their training to develop expertise in organizing missions and training local staff as well as doing research. Those committed to a year will be fully equipped with tools needed to carry on the vision, build lasting capacity, and revolutionize the emerging field of global surgery.

Ziad C. Sifri, MD, FACS, is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ and has been a Trauma and Critical Care Attending at University Hospital since 2003. Dr. Sifri attended Medical School at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He completed his General Surgery Residency at John Hopkins University, followed by a two year Trauma / Critical Care, Emergency Surgery and Research fellowship at the NJ Trauma Center.

Dr. Sifri is the President of International Surgical Health Initiative (ISHI), a humanitarian non-profit organization (501c3) he cofounded in 2009. It provides free surgical care to underserved communities internationally through volunteer services. ISHI has completed 17 surgical missions and performed more than 1200 surgeries in Haiti, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Peru, Guatemala and the Philippines. Dr. Sifri currently leads 2-3 surgical missions per year and has personally led twelve such missions, including an emergency mission to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Dr. Sifri is the current Director of the Global Surgery fellowship at NJMS which started in 2015. He is the Director of the International Surgery clinical elective for 4th year medical students. He is also a faculty mentor for the non–credit elective in global surgery and supported the creation of the ISHI NJMS Student Club in 2013. He is the recipient of the NJMS Excellence in Teaching award and a seven-time recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching Award.

Dr. Sifri grew up in war-torn Beirut, Lebanon where his passion for being of service to the most deprived individuals took root. As a surgeon Dr. Sifri has dedicated time to international surgical missions. Dr. Sifri considers this work to be personally rewarding and believes missions are not just about providing deeply needed medical services, but also about providing local doctors with crucial training. Dr. Sifri also believes that students and residents need to be exposed to international surgery during their training so they can develop the understanding and commitment it requires to give back. Finally, Dr. Sifri believes there is no more gratifying activity he would rather do, than to participate on a humanitarian mission.

For more information, visit www.ishiglobal.org

Pulse Summer 2014 – PDF pg. 22

Dept. of Surgery News- PDF pg. 11

Winner for the EAST Oriens Award “mentor," 2015

Nominated for Golden Apple Teaching Award at NJMSl, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015

Winner of the Golden Apple Teaching Award at NJMS, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013

Winner of the New Jersey Medical School “Excellence in Teaching” Award, 2010

AAST/KCI Research Scholarship Award Recipient, 2009/2010

Chief Resident Award: Johns Hopkins University, Dept of Surgery, 2000