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Maija Cheung

Chief Medical Officer

Maija Cheung

Why you chose your animal

Manta Ray - I have always been in awe of manta rays and their ability to navigate the seas. Their adaptability and strength and tendency towards discovery are characteristics I strive for

Biography

Dr. Cheung graduated from Middlebury College where she majored in geography with a focus on Middle Eastern Studies, minored in religion, and completed studies in Arabic. After graduating Dr. Cheung spent time living and studying in Amman, Jordan and then worked as an ORISE Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases working on global public health research and development activities.

Dr. Cheung graduated from Dartmouth Medical School where she spent a year directing research and clinical program development in Peru as part of the Dartmouth Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and assisting in humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

Dr. Cheung completed her General Surgery Residency at Yale New Haven Hospital and was the first Yale Global Surgery Research Fellow. Her research focused on capacity building and educational projects in pediatric surgery and trauma and emergency general surgery in Uganda. She completed a fellowship at Yale in Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery and stayed on as faculty initially at Yale New Haven Hospital and now through an appointment at the West Haven VA Medical Center. While at Yale she was also in an education leadership position as the Associate Program Director for both the Yale General Surgery Residency Program as well as the Bariatric and MIS Fellowship Program.

During her residency at Yale, she started working with group that would become Kids Operating Room (KidsOR). Since the founding of KidsOR in 2017 she has served on the International Advisory Board helping steer clinical development opportunities and data collection policies and in 2021 was appointed as their Global Lead for Surgery. She became the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for KidsOR in December 2023 as well as the CMO for the KidsOR commercial subsidiary Global Hospital which develops healthcare infrastructure and solar powered solutions in low-resource settings with all profit going to KidsOR to create capacity for children’s surgery around the world.

Dr. Cheung’s expertise extends beyond clinical practice, encompassing a broad spectrum of global health initiatives. She has spearheaded numerous projects aimed at improving healthcare infrastructure, increasing training opportunities 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 amassed extensive experience in addressing healthcare disparities across diverse populations.

As a staunch advocate for health equity, Dr. Cheung has collaborated with international organizations, non-profits, and governmental agencies to develop sustainable healthcare solutions tailored to the unique needs of each community. She is actively involved in research endeavors aimed at addressing pressing public health issues on a global sale and using her expertise to shape policy and inform evidence-based interventions through innovative and context-specific programs.

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