October 27, 2021
CHICAGO: Five surgeons received the 2021 American College of Surgeons (ACS)/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism Awards in recognition of their selfless efforts as volunteer surgeons who provide care to medically underserved patients.
The extraordinary contributions of these award recipients were recognized during the virtual ACS Clinical Congress 2021, which concludes today. The awards are determined by the ACS Board of Governors Surgical Volunteerism and Humanitarian Awards Workgroup and are administered through the ACS Operation Giving Back program.
The ACS/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism Awards recognize ACS Fellows and members who are committed to giving back to society through significant contributions to surgical care as volunteers. This year, volunteerism awards were granted to five surgeons.
Seng-Feng Jeng, MD, FACS, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, received an International Surgical Volunteerism Award for his nearly 20 years of volunteerism in Vietnam, where he performs cost-free reconstructive surgery and teaches local surgeons and health care teams in an underequipped health system.
Dr. Jeng, professor of surgery, department of plastic surgery, E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung City, participated in his first reconstructive microsurgery charitable mission with Operation Smile Vietnam in 2002, after which he was inspired to continue a charitable mission program to help build Vietnam’s severely underfunded health system. Since his first mission, Dr. Jeng and his team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, senior nurses, and administrative staff from Taiwan have returned to Vietnam—most often Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)—every year for seven to 10 days to provide free surgical services. The operations provided by Dr. Jeng and his team have been varied, including reconstruction of cleft lip/palate and facial deformities, of which there is a high prevalence in Vietnam; the release of burn scar and subsequent reconstruction with free anterolateral thigh flap; reconstruction of breast cancer lesion with free transverse rectus abdominis flap; and free fibular flap to restore bone tumor of the mandible, among several others. In the last trip before the COVID-19 pandemic began (September 2019), the team provided 166 patients with medical consultations, 90 surgical operations, and 102 surgical procedures at the Quang Ngai Hospital for Children and Women.
Brent A. Senior, MD, FACS, an otolaryngologist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, received an International Surgical Volunteerism Award for his decades of work in providing otolaryngologic surgery services and education in Southeast Asia, particularly in Vietnam.
Since 1998, Dr. Senior, the Nathaniel and Sheila Harris Distinguished Professor and chief, division of rhinology, allergy, and endoscopic skull base surgery, University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, has been leading two-week surgical missions to Vietnam to help build medical and surgical infrastructure in a nation that was devastated in the U.S.-supported Vietnamese civil war and that has struggled since. Working in both Saigon and HCMC, Dr. Senior has performed hundreds of operations in his time as a volunteer, spanning the breadth of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. Dr. Senior and his teams introduced modern endoscopic sinus surgery procedures to the country, and the procedures have also included advanced techniques such as cochlear implantation for the totally deaf and endoscopic skull base procedures for tumors.
Rochelle Dicker, MD, FACS, a trauma and critical care surgeon in Los Angeles, California, received the Domestic Surgical Volunteerism Award for her efforts to develop firearm injury prevention education, support for victims of firearm violence, and advocacy for firearm injury reduction-based legislation, particularly through the San Francisco Wraparound Project.
In 2001, Dr. Dicker started her fellowship in trauma at University of California, San Francisco, and a fellowship in violence prevention with the California Wellness Foundation, during which she recognized a need for firearm injury prevention and support for victims of firearm violence as she provided clinical care to victims.
Beyond the surgical care she provides to victims of firearm violence, Dr. Dicker, professor of surgery and anesthesia, vice-chair for critical care, chief of surgical critical care, associate trauma director, University of California-Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, developed the Wraparound model, which transformed into the San Francisco Wraparound Project. The Project works to reduce injury and criminal recidivism in the most vulnerable citizens of the city of San Francisco and is based on three critical components: a public health approach for injury prevention, based on evidence that addressing root causes of violence such as poverty and systemic racism can prevent future injury and incarceration; health communication and services that are culturally appropriate; and recognition that a major event like trauma provides a teachable moment.
Rami Kantar, MD, MPH, a general surgery resident in Baltimore, Maryland, received the Resident Volunteerism Award for his work to provide logistical support, surgical and clinical services, and capacity building with the Global Smile Foundation, which offers comprehensive cleft care in surgically underserved countries around the world.
Since 2013, Dr. Kantar, University of Maryland Medical System—R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore, has been volunteering with the Foundation, which focuses on areas of need, underserved patient populations, and geographical areas significantly affected by geopolitical instabilities and conflict. Dr. Kantar helps to organize and provide logistical support to all missions, and he has provided surgical care to address cleft lip and/or palate in approximately 10 missions to Beirut, Lebanon; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Peru. These areas have been experiencing high rates of poverty and political unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the already existing backlog of untreated patients with cleft lip and/or palate.
Chandrakanth Are, MBBS, FACS, FRCS, received the inaugural Academic Global Surgeon Award for his efforts in creating and sustaining various global curricula and programs in surgical oncology to help alleviate care disparities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with a particular focus on India.
Dr. Are, the JL & CJ Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology & Global Health, and vice-chair of education, department of surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), Omaha, has been closely involved in the surgical global outreach efforts of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) and served as the chair of the SSO International Committee. During his tenure as chair, he led the joint efforts between the SSO and the European Society of Surgical Oncology to develop a Global Curriculum in Surgical Oncology, which highlights the global variation in cancer care education and makes the case for a streamlined global surgical oncology curriculum of uniform standards. This resource-stratified curriculum can be used as a foundational platform for training surgical oncologists, which is critical in LMICs. The modular nature of this curriculum helps each country select elements that are suitable for their local and regional needs and, perhaps most importantly, that are affordable given their available resources. Several countries have reached out to explore pathways to regionally implement the curriculum, with one expressing interest in implement it across their entire nation. Dr. Are has held multiple in-person consultation meetings in the country to strategize and develop steps for implementation.
"FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.