Dr. Doruk Ozgediz to Join Faculty and Named Inaugural Director of Global Surgery and Health Equity

Doruk Ozgediz, MD, MSc, FACS, FAAP, will be returning to UCSF to become the inaugural Director of Global Surgery and Health Equity in the Department of Surgery starting March 1, 2020. He will also be a member of the Institute for Global Health Sciences, where he will serve on the Faculty Leadership Committee. Dr. Ozgediz will base his pediatric surgery practice at Mission Bay. He is coming to UCSF from the Yale School of Medicine, where he is an Associate Professor of Surgery.

Dr. Ozgediz is certified by the American Board of Surgery in Surgery and Pediatric Surgery. He performs a wide range of operations on patients, including babies and adults with pediatric conditions, with problems ranging from congenital conditions, to trauma and other emergencies, and cancer. Dr. Ozgediz completed medical school and residency in general surgery at UCSF before pursuing a pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Toronto. During his training, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Health in Developing Countries from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has been a faculty member at the Yale Department of Surgery, Section of Pediatric Surgery, since 2012, and he has led global surgery programs within the Section of Education.

Dr. Ozgediz has been a part of capacity strengthening programs in surgery and anesthesia. He is interested in improving access to surgical care for vulnerable populations globally. About 17 years ago, while a general surgery resident, Dr. Ozgediz began traveling to Uganda, where resources for surgery are extremely limited, and a substantial portion of the population lacks access to surgical care. Children can wait years for diagnoses and treatments that are usually available in infancy in the US. In Uganda, he helped found the Global Partners in Anesthesia and Surgery collaboration to help train providers, improve hospitals and operating suites, and strengthen the country’s capacity to deliver surgical care. Dr. Ozgediz later helped found the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery, a multidisciplinary global consortium with a vision to increase access to children’s surgical care.

Dr. Ozgediz will bring passion, experience, and vision to the Director position as the Department expands its global health and equity portfolio. The Department would also like to thank Dr. Shant Vartanian for leading the international search for this position, and to all the members of the search committee for their service.