In last month’s Academic Dean Paragraph entitled “Why Research? Part ii,” I briefly mentioned Dr, Kathryn (Kat) Chu, a colorectal surgeon and Director, Centre for Global Surgery and Professor of Global Surgery, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Subsequently, Dr. Chu accepted a part-time position with PAACS as Director of Research starting Dec 1, 2024. I have known of her for a decade related to her work with PAACS member Robert Riviello in Kigali, Rwanda, at the University Teaching Hospital, Kigali. I first met Dr. Chu at the Pan African Association of Surgeons (PAAS) Commission 2017: “Global Surgery Implementation in Africa” at African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
We became immediate friends and colleagues. She invited Maggie Tarpley and me to participate in “How to Survive My MMed” and present our ideas on research to their surgical trainees at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She spoke at the PAACS Conference in Chicago in October 2024 where she met many in the PAACS community. She also served as an examiner at the 2024 COSECSA Exams and attended the annual meeting where she interacted with PAACS faculty and final year residents and fellows.
Dr. Chu’s response, to “Why PAACS Research?” was: “Improve patient care in Africa; Improve surgical training; Strengthen the relationship between PAACS hospitals; and Be a leader in COSECSA.”
I could write multiple pages but will restrain myself. She is a Hoosier, born and raised in Indiana. Her academic trek led her to California: Stanford (BA in Human Biology with Honors), then medical school and surgical residency at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). A Fullbright Scholar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, she earned an MSc in public health in developing countries. Her fellowship in colon and rectal surgery was at the Lahey Clinic. She was on faculty at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore 2007-2014. Her first publication was in 1992; currently she has over 140 publications in peer-reviewed journals and multiple book chapters.
Dr. Chu has resided in Cape Town, South Africa since 2015. Initially she was on faculty at the University of Cape Town but was subsequently recruited to Stellenbosch University in 2019 to set up and direct the Centre for Global Surgery. She has supplementary appointments at UCT, the University of Botswana, and the University of Birmingham, UK. She has been affiliated with Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) since 2007, serving in major leadership roles.
While working with Mennonite missionaries in her 20s, Kat had a life-changing experience. She may well share about her Christian walk in a future PAACS Bulletin. While in London earning her master’s degree she met fellow student Greg, a big-animal veterinarian from South Africa’s Western Cape. They wed, have middle-school-aged twins, and reside in Cape Town.
As PAACS seeks to address its strategic plan regarding research, the need for support for our faculty, program directors and trainees was evident. Dr. Chu was not recruited to do research or search for grants but to equip, enable, motivate, and catalyze our faculty and trainees in obtaining lifelong skills to better interpret the literature, enhance their critical analysis skills, address challenges encountered in clinical practice, and contribute relevant information to improve patient care and access. As a multi-institutional and integrated educational organization in a dozen countries, PAACS is well-placed to ask pertinent questions and make meaningful contributions to our sub-region.
Jesus’ job description was to teach, preach, and heal (Matt 4:23 and 9:35) and “to make God known”
(John 1:18). We in PAACS see that as our raison d'être, our reason or justification for existence.
Welcome to PAACS, Dr. Kat Chu.
