Passing of Dr. Paul Farmer

Dear CHESA community,

Many of you have by now heard about the tragic and untimely passing of Dr. Paul Farmer on Monday morning. He was a giant in global health who maintained a stalwart and relentless vision to serve, empower, and learn from the most vulnerable populations in society, regardless of where they live. He died in Rwanda after the launch of the University of Global Health Equity last week, founded at a site where Partners in Health, the organization he co-founded, has been working for decades.

I was a medical student when I met Dr. Farmer after he gave a talk at UCSF in 1996 about the work of PIH, and it was impossible not to be moved to act, do more, and work in solidarity toward social justice. His messages were very clear – health is a human right and as health care providers we cannot ignore the social, economic, and political factors that determine health, and we must be part of the solution to dismantle these structures. PIH showed that it is possible to deliver the highest possible level of care in the most difficult circumstances and that those lessons should also be applied in high-income areas where in fact health care is much more expensive with often worse outcomes.

Dr. Farmer had an expansive impact on global surgery because he saw the need for essential surgical care as a basic human right – not a luxury – and because of his fundamental belief in access to universal health coverage. He was a tremendous ally in our advocacy to get surgical care on the global health agenda. He catalyzed the founding of the Harvard Program for Global Surgery and Social Change, the UCSF HEAL Program, and many others. We drew on many lessons from his work in advancing the global surgery movement.

There are many compelling testimonials of his work – books that are “must reads” in global health such as Infections and Inequalities and Mountains Beyond Mountains as well as the film “Bending the Arc “. Please also see the touching account from our colleague Dr. Sriram Shumasunder, HEAL co-director in NPR and a short statement from Dr. Ernest Barthelemy, CHESA fellow and close friend to Dr. Farmer.

Over the last several days I have been in touch with many colleagues who worked closely with Dr. Farmer and colleagues–they are saddened and shocked. He will be missed dearly. Our thoughts go out to his family, his colleagues at PIH and in Rwanda, Haiti, Boston, Sierra Leone and the innumerable communities that he touched globally.

Many thanks,

Dr. Doruk Ozgediz