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A desire to reduce global inequities in healthcare prompted Dr. Kee Park to step away from his thriving neurosurgery practice. As a consultant to the World Health Organization, his advocacy has helped build capacity for essential medical services in previously underserved countries.
Those experiences were central to the lecture Dr. Park delivered for a full house at Emmanuel's Janet M. Daley Library Lecture Hall on Feb. 4th, but he also used the occasion to clear up a common misconception.
“I think there’s a common belief that you have to be a clinical expert on a disease to work in the public health aspects of it,” said Dr. Park. “That is simply not true.
“In our situation with global surgery, we have medical students who are doing research, they’re doing advocacy, they’re doing amazing things,” he added.
Dr. Park was on campus as part of an ongoing lecture series, which was launched in 2024 to complement the new Global & Public Health major at Emmanuel. Run by Professor of Political Science & International Studies Lenore Martin, Ph.D., the interdisciplinary program blends science, social science, and the humanities to develop the skillsets needed to address the wide range of factors that support or detract from public health.
“All of you, no matter what your interests are, can contribute to global health,” said Dr. Martin. “We should use everything we have, whether it’s politics, ethics, biology, communications, finances—we need all of it.”
Three Areas of Advocacy
Dr. Park’s lecture focused on three primary areas, all of which stem from unmet medical needs: global access to surgery, global neurosurgical care, and geopolitical impacts on health in North Korea.
Worldwide, five billion people lack access to surgical and anesthesia care. Much of Dr. Park’s work in global surgery has focused on working with countries to develop plans for building health infrastructure and finding ways to finance it.
It started small, at a hospital in Ethiopia that Park began working with in 2009. The entire country of 85 million people was served by three neurosurgeons, so he created a volunteer task force to help train doctors to meet that need. The training program was a success that became a model for other countries.
Data and Advocacy
Dr. Park relocated to Cambodia in 2013, and started working at a trauma center. He also started collecting data for advocacy, after reviewing admissions records and finding that head injuries from scooter accidents were the leading cause of admissions and surgery.
Scooters are the primary mode of transit in Cambodia. At the time, nine out of 10 motorists did not wear helmets. Dr. Park and his colleagues used their data to show a correlation between helmet use and injury rate, and then published their research in peer-reviewed medical journals. They also started advocating for helmet laws on the op-ed pages of Cambodian newspapers—an effort that culminated with passage of a new law in 2016 that helped reduce head injuries and by extension the burden on Cambodia’s neurological care capacity.
“It was very satisfying and also the first time I realized that research and data are important tools in advocacy for public health and a meaningful way to make a difference,” said Dr. Park.
Much of Park’s current advocacy work involves policy, helping countries develop plans to increase care capacity. He noted that medical school does not offer courses on public health, saying advocacy is a different skillset from clinical work. He invited students who wanted to make a difference to get involved.
“We have to fight a good battle,” said Dr. Park. “We really need to nurture a group of people within global health who are experts in politics and are able to mount that battle. I hope that you can do it.”
