Solving for Why: A Surgeon’’s Journey to Discover the Transformative Power of Purpose

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. 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. To date, he has worked and taught in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Benin, Togo, Congo, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, and Madagascar. 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.