Image of John Gerard Meara

John G Meara, D.M.D., M.D.

Boston Children's Hospital Professor of Surgery in the Field of Pediatric Plastic Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital
Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

John G. Meara, MD, DMD, MBA is the Director of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, and Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Meara serves as the Plastic Surgeon-in-Chief of the Department of Plastic & Oral Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital.   He was Co-Chair for the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and was a commissioner on the Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era, and the Lancet Oncology Commission.   He currently serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Diagnostics.  In 2008 he created the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship program. He is also interested in value-based health care and implementation science research, including time driven activity-based cost research and outcomes research.  Dr. Meara has led several ICHOM projects focusing on outcomes reporting and international benchmarking. 

Affiliations
Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital

Contact Information
Harvard Medical School
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
641 Huntington Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Boston Children's Hospital
Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery

Assistant
Marshalee Bowens

Dr. Meara's interests and innovation activities lie in the areas of craniofacial anomalies, cleft lip and cleft palate, but he has a particular interest in augmenting the delivery of quality surgical and anesthesia care in low-resource settings through long term capacity building. He is involved in multiple global surgery projects looking at the burden of surgical disease, the surgical capacity and health systems building in low-resource environments, surgical education and the economic impact of untreated surgical disease. He is also interested in value based health care and implementation science research, including time driven activity based cost research and outcomes research. Dr. Meara has led several ICHOM projects focusing on outcomes reporting and international benchmarking. Since 2008, he has directed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship program in collaboration with Partners In Health. Its purpose is to strengthen global surgical systems through a combination of research, advocacy, and implementation science as well as train leaders who will further promote surgical care, education, and research pertinent to global surgery.

Research Interests

Global Surgery Fellowship: A model for surgical care and education in resource-poor countries.
Authors: Authors: Aarabi S, Smithers C, Fils MM, Godson JL, Pierre JH, Mukherjee J, Meara J, Farmer P.
J Pediatr Surg
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Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development.
Authors: Authors: Meara JG, Leather AJ, Hagander L, Alkire BC, Alonso N, Ameh EA, Bickler SW, Conteh L, Dare AJ, Davies J, Mérisier ED, El-Halabi S, Farmer PE, Gawande A, Gillies R, Greenberg SL, Grimes CE, Gruen RL, Ismail EA, Kamara TB, Lavy C, Lundeg G, Mkandawire NC, Raykar NP, Riesel JN, Rodas E, Rose J, Roy N, Shrime MG, Sullivan R, Verguet S, Watters D, Weiser TG, Wilson IH, Yamey G, Yip W.
Am J Obstet Gynecol
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Surgical Care in Liberia and Implications for Capacity Building.
Authors: Authors: Chao TE, Patel PB, Kikubaire M, Niescierenko M, Hagander L, Meara JG.
World J Surg
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Global cancer surgery: delivering safe, affordable, and timely cancer surgery.
Authors: Authors: Sullivan R, Alatise OI, Anderson BO, Audisio R, Autier P, Aggarwal A, Balch C, Brennan MF, Dare A, D'Cruz A, Eggermont AM, Fleming K, Gueye SM, Hagander L, Herrera CA, Holmer H, Ilbawi AM, Jarnheimer A, Ji JF, Kingham TP, Liberman J, Leather AJ, Meara JG, Mukhopadhyay S, Murthy SS, Omar S, Parham GP, Pramesh CS, Riviello R, Rodin D, Santini L, Shrikhande SV, Shrime M, Thomas R, Tsunoda AT, van de Velde C, Veronesi U, Vijaykumar DK, Watters D, Wang S, Wu YL, Zeiton M, Purushotham A.
Lancet Oncol
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Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development.
Authors: Authors: Meara JG, Leather AJ, Hagander L, Alkire BC, Alonso N, Ameh EA, Bickler SW, Conteh L, Dare AJ, Davies J, Mérisier ED, El-Halabi S, Farmer PE, Gawande A, Gillies R, Greenberg SL, Grimes CE, Gruen RL, Ismail EA, Kamara TB, Lavy C, Lundeg G, Mkandawire NC, Raykar NP, Riesel JN, Rodas E, Rose J, Roy N, Shrime MG, Sullivan R, Verguet S, Watters D, Weiser TG, Wilson IH, Yamey G, Yip W.
Lancet
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Global surgery--going beyond the Lancet Commission.
Authors: Authors: Davies JI, Meara JG.
Lancet
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Half a billion surgical cases: Aligning surgical delivery with best-performing health systems.
Authors: Authors: Shrime MG, Daniels KM, Meara JG.
Surgery
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Global Surgery 2030: Evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development.
Authors: Authors: Meara JG, Leather AJ, Hagander L, Alkire BC, Alonso N, Ameh EA, Bickler SW, Conteh L, Dare AJ, Davies J, Mérisier ED, El-Halabi S, Farmer PE, Gawande A, Gillies R, Greenberg SL, Grimes CE, Gruen RL, Ismail EA, Kamara TB, Lavy C, Ganbold L, Mkandawire NC, Raykar NP, Riesel JN, Rodas E, Rose J, Roy N, Shrime MG, Sullivan R, Verguet S, Watters D, Weiser TG, Wilson IH, Yamey G, Yip W.
Surgery
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Increasing value in plagiocephaly care: a time-driven activity-based costing pilot study.
Authors: Authors: Inverso G, Lappi MD, Flath-Sporn SJ, Heald R, Kim DC, Meara JG.
Ann Plast Surg
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Global Surgery 2030: an introduction.
Authors: Authors: Meara JG, Greenberg SL.
Bull Am Coll Surg
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