Photo of Mark Shrime

Mark Shrime, PhD, MD

Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
O'Brien Chair of Global Surgery, Institute of Global Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

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 academic pursuits focus on surgical delivery in low- and middle-income countries, where he has a specific interest in the intersection of health and impoverishment. 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. 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.

Is AJCC/UICC Staging Still Appropriate for Head and Neck Cancers in Developing Countries?
Authors: Authors: Fagan JJ, Wetter J, Otiti J, Aswani J, Konney A, Diom E, Baidoo K, Onakoya P, Mugabo R, Noah P, Mashamba V, Kundiona I, Macharia C, Mainasara MG, Gebeyehu M, Bogale M, Twier K, Faniriko M, Melesse GB, Shrime MG.
OTO Open
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Analysis of Financial Risk Protection Indicators in Myanmar for Paediatric Surgery.
Authors: Authors: Nataraja RM, Andolfatto L, Moore EM, Watters D, Shrime M, McLeod E.
World J Surg
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The Macroeconomic Consequences Of Firearm-Related Fatalities In OECD Countries, 2018-30: A Value-Of-Lost-Output Analysis.
Authors: Authors: Peters AW, Yorlets RR, Shrime MG, Alkire BC.
Health Aff (Millwood)
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Top 10 Resources in Global Surgery.
Authors: Authors: Niyikuri A, Smith ER, Vervoort D, Shrime MG, Brown S, Peters AW, Yamey G, Makasa E.
Glob Health Sci Pract
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Money down the drain: predatory publishing in the COVID-19 era.
Authors: Authors: Vervoort D, Ma X, Shrime MG.
Can J Public Health
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Identifying essential components of surgical care delivery through quality improvement: An updated surgical assessment tool.
Authors: Authors: Lin Y, Raykar NP, Saluja S, Mukhopadhyay S, Sharma S, Frett B, Enumah S, Iverson KR, Johnson W, Meara JG, Shrime MG.
Int J Surg
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The Optimal Distribution of Surgery in Low- and MiddleIncome Countries: A Proposed Matrix for Determining Country-Level Organization of Surgical Services - A Response to the Recent Commentaries.
Authors: Authors: Iverson KR, Svensson E, Sonderman K, Barthélemy EJ, Citron I, Vaughan KA, Powell BL, Meara JG, Shrime MG.
Int J Health Policy Manag
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The Surgical Health Services Research Agenda for the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Authors: Authors: Jarman MP, Bergmark RW, Chhabra K, Scott JW, Shrime M, Cooper Z, Tsai T.
Ann Surg
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Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Screening for Hepatitis B Virus Infection in Patients With Solid Tumors Before Initiating Chemotherapy.
Authors: Authors: Konijeti GG, Grandhe S, Tincopa M, Lane JA, Shrime MG, Singh S, Loomba R.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol
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The health utility of mild and severe dysphonia.
Authors: Authors: DeVore EK, Shrime MG, Wittenberg E, Franco RA, Song PC, Naunheim MR.
Laryngoscope
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