Working with Plastic Surgeons overseas has been both a privilege and an honor. Through
close partnerships with doctors, made possible by Interplast, I have expanded my professional and personal horizons.
Together, we have achieved a great goal: Treating many underprivileged children who cannot afford surgery. We have performed
cleft lip and palate, speech and burn surgery. These surgeries have been undertaken in many countries and continents.
I have had the honor of working with surgeons in Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Laos, Cambodia
and Vietnam. I have been both student and teacher. It has been an amazing experience. My work with these
surgeons continues. Not only do I continue to travel overseas to operate on underprivileged children, but on a nearly
daily basis, I am in email contact with many. We discuss cases, outcomes and procedures. It is precisely this
empowerment of local surgeons - helping them care for the needy - that has brought me a tremendous amount of joy. I
ask that if you are a patient in my practice, please understand that at times, I may be unavailable as I travel overseas to
help my colleagues deliver care to the indigent.
Ross IS Zbar
Dr Zbar has published extensively about overseas volunteer surgery.
These manuscripts include:
Langstein HN, Zbar RIS and Dingman DL. Teaching microsurgery in western academic centers and in the developing
world. Seminars in Plastic Surg. 2003; 17:17.
Zbar RIS, Otake LR, Miller MJ, Persing JA
and Dingman DL. Web based medicine as a means to establishing centers of surgical excellence in the developing world.
Plastic Recon Surg 2001; 108:460.
Zbar RIS, Rai SM and Dingman
DL. Establishing cleft surgery in developing nations: A model for the new millennium. Plastic
Recon Surg 2000; 106:886.
In recognition of his contribution, Dr Zbar received the Compassionate
Doctor Award in both 2009 and 2010. Click here to see this award. |
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"The poverty throughout this world never ceases to shock me." - R Zbar, MD
| Infant outside her home (Nepal) |
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