A personal experience with human suffering as a child in war-torn Iran instilled a passion for caring for people in Majid Sadigh, M.D., who knew at a very young age he wanted to become a physician. In the 32 years since he came to the U.S. as a refugee, the associate professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and UVM/Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) Global Health Program director has become an internationally recognized global health expert and humanitarian, impacting countless lives in resource-poor countries across the globe.
Majid Sadigh, M.D., Larner College of Medicine Associate Professor and Director of the WCHN/UVM Global Health Program. (Photo: LCOM Design & Photography)
A personal experience with human suffering as a child in war-torn Iran instilled a passion for caring for people in Majid Sadigh, M.D., who knew at a very young age he wanted to become a physician. In the 32 years since he came to the U.S. as a refugee, the associate professor of medicine at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and UVM/Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) Global Health Program director has become an internationally recognized global health expert and humanitarian, impacting countless lives in resource-poor countries across the globe.
While his portfolio of accomplishments is chock-full, the extremely modest Sadigh, an infectious disease specialist who has dedicated much of his career to fighting HIV worldwide and provided care to Ebola patients in Liberia, is well-known for his humility and propensity to attribute successes to his colleagues. So on November 16, 2017, when Sadigh was inducted as the inaugural Christian J. Trefz Family Endowed Chair in Global Health, he thanked his partners around the world, his students and trainees, and the patients and their families who make his work not only possible but meaningful. The endowed chair is the first-of-its-kind in the State of Connecticut and one of only a few hospital-based endowed global health chairs in the nation.
The College held a celebration in honor of Sadigh on December 5 in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility.
Established with a generous gift from Christian J. and Eva W. Trefz of Westport, Ct., the endowed chair advances the work of the UVM/WCHN joint Global Health Program, launched in 2012 to provide medical residents, students and faculty with hands-on learning opportunities to experience global healthcare systems and to better understand public health issues and the impact of globalization on vulnerable populations. WCHN is the network organization for Norwalk, Danbury and New Milford Hospitals and affiliated organizations.
The Trefz Endowed Chair aims to promote an environment of learning and innovation that serves the needs of WCHN’s very diverse community, according to Christian Trefz, vice chairman of the Trefz Corporation and owner of a number of Connecticut-based McDonald’s restaurants and a member of the Norwalk Hospital Foundation Board of Directors. He and his wife Eva are longtime Norwalk Hospital donors. The Trefz Endowed Chair in Global Health is the eighth endowed chair at WCHN.
The WCHN Global Health Program has expanded to include collaborative training opportunities for students and faculty at Norwalk Hospital, as well as the UVM Larner College of Medicine, for which WCHN serves as a clinical training partner. Thanks to Sadigh’s tireless efforts the Global Health Program currently offers clinical training opportunities at partner sites in five countries, including the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Russia, and Vietnam.
At the induction ceremony and reception held in November, speakers included Sadigh, Trefz, John M. Murphy, M.D., president and CEO of WCHN, Frederick Mandell, M.D.’64, president of the Larner College of Medicine Medical Alumni Association, and Stefan Wheat, a medical student in the Larner College of Medicine’s Class of 2018 who completed a global health elective in Zimbabwe in 2015 through the UVM/WCHN Global Health Program.
Learn more about the UVM/WCHN Global Health Program.
(This article was adapted from a press release produced by Andrea Rynn, director of public and government relations at Western Connecticut Health Network.)