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Trauma surgeon Anthony Charles, MD, MPH, has been named the Director of Global Surgery for the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.


Trauma surgeon Anthony Charles, MD, MPH, has been named the Director of Global Surgery for the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.

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Anthony Charles, MD, MPH

Trauma surgeon Anthony Charles, MD, MPH, has been named the Director of Global Surgery for the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.

“I have met few people in my life with Anthony’s energy and commitment,” says Myron Cohen, MD, director of the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases. “We are so lucky to have his leadership of our Global Surgery Program.”

Charles is chief of the Division of General and Acute Care Surgery and director of the Adult Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation Program or ECMO. In 2009, he launched the Malawi Surgical Initiative (MSI), a training program based at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe that prepares Malawian clinicians for a career in surgery. The MSI has increased the number of Malawian surgeons in the country from 14 to 25.

“We now have more surgeons than operating rooms,” Charles says. “And our trained surgeons are now trainers, holding leadership roles within the surgery department at Kamuzu Central Hospital. This would not have been possible if they had been trained abroad. To solve local problems, you need to be in Malawi day-to-day.”

The Malawi Surgical Initiative is a collaborative effort between UNC, Haukland University in Norway, Kamuzu Central Hospital and the Malawi College of Medicine. Charles says the training runs smoothly because of institutional and departmental support as well as a commitment from surgical partners in UNC’s Departments of Radiology, Pathology and Anesthesiology. The training is accredited by the College of Surgeons of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Malawian trainees can specialize in several surgical areas including general surgery, pediatrics and orthopedics.

Charles says the need for surgeons in Malawi is great due to the high percentage of traffic accidents and abdominal surgeries, like appendicitis. The program not only attracts Malawian trainees, but also American-trained surgeons who are passionate about global health. Rebecca Maine, MD, MPH, and Gita Mody, MD, MPH, joined the UNC Department of Surgery within the past year because of the opportunity to work abroad.

“Joining UNC has been a great opportunity to advance my work in global surgery due to the strength of the collaboration with the Malawi Surgical Initiative with the UNC Project-Malawi and the local surgeons in Lilongwe,” says Mody. “Together, they are making great strides in education, capacity building and research in low-resourced settings. I look forward to joining Dr. Charles’ team.”

Jared Gallaher, MD, MPH, spent two years as a research fellow in Malawi and plans on joining the UNC Department of Surgery upon completing a surgery fellowship in Oregon.

“When I started my training at UNC, I was immediately enthusiastic about Dr. Charles’ vision for a partnership-centered approach to global surgery,” says Gallaher. “Working with Dr. Charles and the Malawi Surgical Initiative gave me the opportunity to help improve surgical care in Malawi through multiple approaches including education, research, public health and system development.”

While the bulk of global surgery initiatives are centered in Malawi, Charles says future efforts may focus on the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases’ sites in Asia, where the need for surgeons in rural areas is great.