Duke neurosurgery Mike Haglund, MD, PhD, was honored with the Humanitarian Award at the Duke Alumni Award Dinner on November 8, 2018.
Haglund started and co-directs Uganda’s first Neurosurgery Training Program—one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s only neurosurgery residency programs—at Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital. He created a course to train Uganda’s general surgeons in basic lifesaving neurosurgery procedures and has organized surgical camps led by Duke Health professionals to perform surgeries and train Ugandan neurosurgeons, anesthesiologists, and nursing staff. He has secured grants to conduct research to build surgical and care capacity and, ultimately, a country-wide neurosurgery network. In addition, he founded the Duke Global Health PLUS (Placement of Life-Saving Useable Surplus) program, which has provided more than 92 tons of medical equipment and supplies worth $13 million to Uganda, and more than $1 million of equipment to Rwanda.