John Meara

Harvard Medical School

John G. Meara is the director of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and is chairman of the executive committee of the Harvard Plastic Surgery Training Program. Dr. Meara serves as the chief of the Department of Plastic & Oral Surgery at Boston Children's Hospital.

Dr. Meara received his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School and the D.M.D. from University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He completed residencies in otolaryngology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and in plastic surgery and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital. Following a fellowship in cleft and craniofacila surgery at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, he completed the M.B.A. program, graduating from Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne.

Dr. Meara's interests and innovation activities lie in the areas of craniofacial anomalies, cleft lip and cleft palate, but he has a particular interest in the global surgical burden of disease and improving health outcomes. He is involved in several projects looking at the burden of surgical disease, the surgical capacity assessment, the use of technology for post operative patient management and the economic impact of untreated surgical disease. Since 2008, he has directed the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellowship program in collaboration with Partners In Health. Its purpose is to train leaders who will further promote surgical care, education, and research pertinent to global surgery.

Research Interests:

  • Global burden of surgical disease
  • Economic impact of surgical intervention in low-income countries
  • Cleft lip and palate and craniofacial quality, safety, cost and comparative effectiveness
  • Time Driven Activity based costing evaluation of pediatric multidisciplinary care delivery

Articles & Reports