United Nations Lecture: Action in Conflict: KidsOR Leading the Way

As nearly 2 billion children around the world are needlessly dying and in crisis, KidsOR is pushing through the conflict to save lives and bring healing amid the strife—not only in Gaza and Ukraine but in over 35 countries including Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uganda. The program will begin with a special recorded message from the United Nations Development Program’s Head of Office for Gaza, followed by a powerful presentation by Dr. Maija Cheung, Assistant Professor of Surgery at Yale University and Chief Medical Officer for KidsOR.

With almost one-third of global disease is due to surgically treatable conditions, the absence of pediatric surgical capacity is a growing crisis, exacerbated by war, climate change, and migration, as well as from lesser-reported rising cancer rates, road traffic injuries, and trauma morbidity. Dr. Cheung will shed light on the extent and consequences of these healthcare disparities, and share solutions for even the most challenging, underserved areas. We are grateful to Dr. Mark DeWaele, Board Chairman/President of KidsOR, for making this presentation possible. This is the inaugural lecture in our United Nations Series, endowed by the United Nations Committee of New Canaan.

Maija Cheung, MD FACS is currently a surgeon at Yale University and Chief Medical Officer for Kids Operating Room. She attended Middlebury College, Dartmouth Medical School, and completed her General Surgery Residency and Fellowship in Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. She has spearheaded numerous projects for the Dartmouth Center for Healthcare Delivery Science, Yale Institute of Global Health, and as an ORISE Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at improving healthcare infrastructure, increasing training for the health workforce, and promoting access to care in underserved areas. Her work has taken her to remote villages, urban slums, and disaster-stricken regions where she has addressed healthcare disparities across diverse populations.