Global Capacity Building & Research
The Department of Surgery is a part of the global community, and we are committed to creating long term collaborations with partners around the globe.
Guided by the concept of “convergence science,” we feel a strong sense of urgency to build partnerships internationally that will introduce surgeons and surgical residents to new knowledge and approaches — because big leaps come from new settings and ideas.
Learn more about the Global Colorectal Surgery Education Initiative
The Michigan Center for Global Surgery connects our faculty and trainees to communities around the world. Through education, surgical care, and research initiatives, we create an international footprint by giving our faculty and trainees the opportunity to make a sustainable difference in the global health arena.
By joining with institutes abroad, we can develop long-term relationships that improve quality and delivery of care, creating a positive ripple effect for communities in China, India, Colombia, Ethiopia and others — as well as the chance for new scientific collaboration and discovery.
Global Surgery Fellowship
The Global Surgery Fellowship at the Center for Global Surgery offers a one to two year fellowship focused on training future leaders in academic global surgery. The fellowship is designed for residents in the Department of Surgery to work on during the course of their Academic Development Time (ADT).
NIH Fogarty Global Health Research Training Grant
With the NIH Fogarty Global Health Research Training Grant funding, there exists a unique opportunity for surgical residents. Typically, post-docs and more senior learners (e.g. residents/fellows/PhD students) in the latter half of their programs can compete to be funded for 11 months of overseas research. This is an excellent opportunity for residents who are looking for opportunities to pursue research in these global settings. The center’s responsibilities include helping with identification of mentors and developing suitable strategies aimed at creating competitive proposals in target areas.
International Surgical Training Missions
Funding for international surgical training missions can leverage the experience and knowledge we have gained by increasing the number of surgeons who can perform advanced surgical procedures across the world. In return, we are in a unique position to learn about newer and economic alternative surgical therapies being performed around the globe. This program is responsible for funding to send our faculty to teach in underdeveloped countries and for bringing international surgeons to the University of Michigan Medical School to learn optimal specialty surgical care techniques. The center supports the creation of sustainable teaching programs by teaching the teachers, in addition to the promotion of research interests to further extramural funding.
Annual Symposium
The Michigan Center for Global Surgery hosts an annual symposium to showcase work in global surgery at Michigan Medicine and at our collaborators at other institutions. Themes for the symposiums have focused on capacity building, sustainability and data science.
ALL-SAFE is a multinational collaboration to create an open-source platform to help teach surgeons in low- and middle-income countries to perform laparoscopic surgery with modules including cholecystectomy and appendectomy. ALL-SAFE won the Grand Prize of the Global Surgery Training Challenge in 2023 and was named the official laparoscopy training platform for simulation training by the West African College of Surgeons.
Focus Areas: Simulation, Surgical Education, Laparoscopy
Activities: Capacity building, Research, Surgical Technique, Training, Implementation
The Center for Global Surgery has established a long-lasting relationship with St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We worked with them to establish the first kidney transplant program in the country, and we continue to conduct kidney transplants with the institution. Our faculty have also worked with St. Paul's to create a fellowship for post-mastectomy breast reconstruction surgery, as well as to conduct research around breast reconstruction while working towards establishing a breast reconstruction program. ALL-SAFE partners with Soddo Christian Hospital to provide laparoscopic surgical training simulation modules.
Focus Areas: Kidney Transplantation, Breast Reconstruction
Activities: Capacity Building, Research, Surgical Technique Training
Project Leads: Dr. Grace Kim, Dr. Jeffrey Punch, Dr. Adeyiza Momoh
As part of the Center for Global Surgery's ongoing relationship with the KATH in Kumasi, Ghana, we collaborate with KATH to conduct surveys and semi-structured interviews with physicians and patients in Ghana to better understand the barriers to colorectal cancer screening. Our surgeons, along with faculty from Henry Ford Health System and Cornell, also partnered with KATH to establish a comprehensive breast clinic, and we continue to collaborate on increasing access to breast reconstruction.
Focus Areas: Colorectal Surgery Fellowship, Colorectal Cancer Screening, Breast Reconstruction
Activities: Capacity Building, Research, Surgical Technique Training
Project Leads: Dr. Gifty Kwakye, Dr. Adeyiza Momoh
The Center for Global Surgery has a history of collaboration with AIIMS in New Delhi, Delhi, India, with the first projects starting in 2011. We currently work with them to develop trauma and surgical critical care programs, research training and educational training. An example of our work with AIIMS includes research focusing on optic nerve ultrasounds in patients with traumatic brain injury.
Focus Areas: Trauma & Critical Care, Emergency Response Training, Fellowship
Activities: Capacity Building, Research, Protocol & Training Development
Project Lead: Dr. Krishnan Raghavendran
The Michigan Center for Global Surgery began its collaboration with the FRCSL (including the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, the University of Makeni, the Holy Spirit Hospital, LFR International, and the Agency for Rural Community Transformation) in 2019, focusing on lay first responder training for prehospital emergency medical services development. Initial trainings deployed more than 4,500 lay first responders, providing care to more than 2,000 documented patient encounters and an opportunity to study first responder knowledge improvement and retention, skill decay, patient impact, local trainer efficacy, and prehospital transport. Current initiatives involve studying the application of mobile technologies to coordinate and optimize prehospital response for improved emergency care coverage and outcomes.
Focus Area: Prehospital Trauma Care
Activities: Capacity Building, Research, Protocol & Training development
Project Leads: Zach Eisner (Medical Student), Dr. Krisnan Raghavendran
The partnership with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan began in 2016, and it has continued to grow and evolve. The collaboration supports joint research projects between the institutions and opportunities for trainees to participate in elective clinical rotations at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. We have worked with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital on emergency planning, and we collaborate to conduct morphomics analysis of patients treated using vascularized lymph node transfer.
Focus Areas: Research, Surgery, Emergency Planning, Morphomics
Activities: Capacity Building, Research, Faculty & Student Exchange
Project Leads: Dr. Kevin Chung, Dr. Stewart Wang
The Michigan Center for Global Surgery connects our faculty and trainees to communities around the world. Through education, surgical care and research initiatives, we create an international footprint by giving our faculty and trainees the opportunity to make a sustainable difference in the global health arena.
The Center for Global Surgery has established long-lasting collaborations with international partners in order to promote capacity building and research across a wide range of global surgery topics. Our trainees, faculty, staff and partners work together to build projects with incredible impact. Email Dr. Krishnan Raghavendran, Director of the Center for Global Surgery, to learn more about how to get involved.
Associate Professor of Surgery and program Associate, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Professor of Surgery
Associate Professor of Surgery
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Program Associate, Surgery
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery
Assistant Dean for Clinical Medical Education
