Bruce's Biosketch

Biosketch

Bruce Carl Steffes, MD, MBA

Dr. Bruce Steffes is a surgeon and educator living in Linden near Fayetteville NC. He is a native of Lapeer, Michigan. His undergraduate work was at Baptist Bible College of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan – Flint College. He graduated from the University of Michigan College of Medicine and then trained in general surgery at the University of Florida. Since that time, he has been also awarded a Masters of Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and was certified in tropical medicine by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

As a surgeon and as an entrepreneur in Fayetteville, NC, he underwent a personal and spiritual crisis that changed the focus of his life. He resigned from his practice in December, 1997.  Since then, serving always as a volunteer and with a focus upon supporting the true heroes in the trenches, he and his wife (an accountant by training) have used their surgical, business and administrative skills in multiple hospitals and other missionary efforts in the developing world. He has spent the majority of each year since early 1998 as a volunteer physician and general surgeon in Haiti, Belize, Guatemala, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. He has also visited several other countries and medical works in developing nations. He serves regularly with the Mercy Ships and World Medical Mission (Samaritan’s Purse) doing short-term (up to six month) stints. He and his wife have worked with two orphanages in Jinja, Uganda. He has worked with several agencies and NGOs as a volunteer. In 2005, he developed a proposal for a $40M pediatric national referral hospital in East Africa, working on behalf of the First Lady of that country.  Sadly, that project did not come to fruition.

He is especially interested in medical education. An active member and Financial Officer of the Continuing Medical and Dental Education Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Association, he assists in their mission to bring current medical information to those serving on the front-lines in developing countries. Seeking more ways to serve, he has taught resuscitation courses for trauma, pediatrics and advanced cardiac life support in the US and East Africa. When in the US, Steffes served as a volunteer associate clinical professor of surgery at Duke University in order to teach residents laparoscopic surgery; served as volunteer surgical faculty at Mulago Hospital, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and now is the Surgeon-in-Residence at Methodist University Physician Assistant Program teaching anatomy, physiology and general surgery to PA students each fall. He is also associate professor in surgery at Loma Linda University and he is also a guest lecturer yearly at the West Virginia University Clinical Tropical Medicine and Parasitology Training Course. In 2009, he was named  as one of the Distinguished Global Faculty of The University of Toledo.

In his efforts to mobilize interest, personnel and finances for medical missions, he is a speaker in churches, service groups and missionary conferences here in the US. In aid in that effort, he and his wife have written the “Handbook for Short Term Medical Missionaries”, published by ABWE (2002). The book is being revised, expanded and divided into two separate works.  The first half is now available as "Medical Missions:  Get Ready, Get Set, Go!".  It is available on this website.  The second half, "Your Mission: Get Ready, Get Set, GO!" is now available as well.

In early 2006, he became the Chief Executive Officer of the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS), a general surgical training program for African residents. PAACS is a rural-based health initiative and is a Commission of the Christian Medical and Dental Association. It is a strategic response to the great need for surgical manpower in Africa. Using rural mission hospitals and a cadre of volunteer board-certified surgeons and missionaries, it is designed to teach the best practices of surgery and apply them to the resource-poor environment in such a way that “brain drain” is avoided and that high quality Christian Surgeons will be produced and remain in their countries for their lifetimes. PAACS is presently accredited by Loma Linda University and is undergoing accreditation by the Western African College of Surgeons (WACS) and College of Surgery of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). There are presently (Jan 2010) 37 residents and fellows in training in primary training sites in Gabon, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Kenya and with sites for rotations in Nigeria, Uganda and S. Africa. It is experiencing a period of rapid expansion.

Steffes is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the West African College of Surgeons and the College of Surgery of East, Central and Southern Africa.  He has been recognized for his work with PAACS with the 2008 International Medicine Award (from the Institute for International Medicine) and induction to the Medical Missions Hall of Fame, located at the University of Toledo, Ohio.

Updated June 6, 2010