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Mark G. Shrime

Professor Mark G. Shrime, MD, MPH, PhD, FACS, is O’Brien Chair of Global Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

He previously served as the founder and Director of the Center for Global Surgery Evaluation at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and as Research Director for the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard. 

He is the author of seminal papers on the global burden of surgical disease, the financial burden facing surgical patients, and the number of people who cannot access safe surgery worldwide. He served as a co-author on the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.

Dr. Shrime graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1996 with a BA in molecular biology. He received his MD from the University of Texas in 2001, after taking a year to teach organic chemistry in Singapore. Medical school was followed by a residency in otolaryngology at the joint Columbia/Cornell program in Manhattan, followed, in turn, by a fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at the University of Toronto in 2007. He completed a second fellowship in microvascular reconstructive surgery, also at the University of Toronto, in 2008. He was the first to identify a novel independent prognostic indicator in head and neck cancer.

To date, he has worked and taught in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Benin, Togo, Congo, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, and Madagascar. In May, 2011, he graduated with an MPH in global health from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he was a finalist for both the Albert Schweitzer award and the HSPH Student Recognition award, and in May, 2015, he received his PhD in health policy from Harvard University, with a concentration in decision science.

His research has been supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation and by an anonymous donation to the Center for Global Surgery Evaluation; he has previously received research support from the GE Foundation’s Safe Surgery 2020 project and the Steven C. and Carmella Kletjian Foundation. He is currently the Principal Investigator on a randomized controlled trial of financial incentives for surgical patients in Guinea and the Principal Investigator on a prospective extended cost-effectiveness analysis of maxillofacial surgery in West Africa.

His academic pursuits focus on surgical delivery in low- and middle-income countries, where he has a specific interest in the intersection of health,  impoverishment, and inequity. His work aims to determine optimal policies and platforms for surgical delivery that maximize health benefits while simultaneously minimizing the risk of financial catastrophe faced by patients. In 2018, he was awarded the Arnold P. Gold Humanism in Medicine Award by the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.

When not working, he is an avid photographer and rock climber and has competed on Seasons 8, 9, and 11 of American Ninja Warrior.

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

  • Director, Center for Global Surgery Evaluation

    Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

    The center’s goals are to

    • Develop impact evaluation methods for implementers in global surgery
    • Train global surgeons in impact evaluation
    • Deliver high-quality evaluations to our partner organizations

  • Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology

    Harvard Medical School

  • Assistant Professor, Global Health and Social Medicine

    Harvard Medical School

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts 1992 – 1996

    Bachelor of Arts, Molecular Biology

    Princeton University

  • Doctor of Medicine 1996 – 2001

    Doctor of Medicine

    University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School

  • Surgical Internship 2001 – 2002

    Surgical Internship

    New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University

  • Residency 2002 – 2006

    Residency in Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery

    Columbia / Cornell Joint Program in Otolaryngology

  • Fellowship 2006 – 2007

    Fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery

    University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital

  • Fellowship 2008

    Fellowship in Microvascular Reconstructive Surgery

    University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital

  • Masters 2009 – 2011

    Masters of Public Health, Global Health and Population

    Harvard School of Public Health

  • PhD 2011 – 2015

    PhD, Health Policy (Decision Analysis)

    Harvard University

Awards

  • 2017
    Jeffrey P. Harris Prize for Excellence in Research
  • 2016
    Board of Directors’ Committee Excellence Award, American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery
  • 2013 and 2014
    Finalist, Lee Lusted Student Research Prize, Society for Medical Decision Making
  • 2013
    Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University, Bok Teaching Center
  • 2007
    First-place poster presentation, Triological Society Combined Section Meetings
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  • 2006
    Second- and third-place awards, Sixth Annual Resident Research Competition
  • 2005
    The Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award
  • 2006
    Resident Travel Award for research presented at the Eastern Section meeting of the Triologic Society
  • 2005, 2003
    AAO-HNS-Stryker-Leibinger Travel Grant for the Annual AAO-HNSF meeting
  • 2004
    Second-place award, Fourth Annual Resident Research Competition
  • 2003
    Nominated for the American College of Surgeons’ resident teaching award
  • 2003
    John Q. Adams Center for the History of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery research grant for Facial Plastic Surgery in Wartime