John Meara

John G. Meara, MD, DMD, MBA, is an American pediatric plastic surgeon, and is currently serving as the Plastic Surgeon-in-Chief of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Children's Hospital Boston. His specialties include cleft lip and palate surgeries, as well as the treatment of craniofacial anomalies. Dr. Meara holds board certifications in plastic surgery as well as otolaryngology.
Meara graduated with highest honors from the University of Notre Dame in 1986 and went on to receive his medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1990. He completed his Dentistry degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993, and received his MBA from Melbourne Business School in 2004. Furthermore, Dr. Meara is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons as well as the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. Additionally, Meara has held academic appointments at the USC Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, the University of Melbourne, and Harvard Medical School.
Global Health
Prior Experience
Meara has been involved as a visiting surgeon in several different locations. He has performed procedures in:
*Ecuador with Por Cristo (1987)
*India with Health Volunteers Overseas (1992)
*Vietnam, China, Jordan, Honduras, and Peru with Operation Smile (1998-2002)
*Haiti with Partners in Health (2007)
In 2008 Meara was part of a team of surgeons who arranged for the transportation of a small Haitian boy, Dumanel Luxama, to the United States for care. On one of his trips to Haiti, Dr. Meara noticed that the child had an encephalocele- a life threatening condition in which a part of the brain protrudes through an opening in the skull. Realizing that there weren’t adequate resources to treat Dumanel in Haiti; Meara and members of Partners in Health arranged for Dumanel to come to ] for surgery.
Partners in Health
While Partners in Health focuses on improving the access and availability of primary care services (immunizations, maternal and child health, and infectious disease care and prevention) in resource-poor settings, a surgical option has never become a primary part of the model of care on a consistent scale. Other NGO’s (such as Operation Smile) have specialized in arranging surgical trips of one to three weeks in resource-poor settings, but this has done little to advance the continuity of surgical care in these settings. The primary goal of the Fellowship in Global Surgery is to give resource-poor settings the training and materials necessary to provide their own self-sustaining surgical options.
Due to the already strong health presence of Partners in Health in Haiti, the primary Global Surgery implementation process will take place at the Zanmi Lasante Hospital site. The eventual goal of the Fellowship is to be able to develop a model that can be replicated in other resource-poor settings, with target sites in Africa, such as Liberia being discussed. As with Partners in Health, the goal of the Global Surgery Fellowshipis not only to provide services to those who need them most, but to train other clinicians who will remain in the area after visiting practitioners have returned to their respective countries. In employing this strategy, it is hoped that the Fellowship’s goal of creating self-sustaining surgical services will be realized.
Global Surgery Fellowship
Meara began to explore existing interest for a collaborative Global Surgery Fellowship in 2007. It was found that he shared his vision with Dr. Paul Farmer, the noted physician/anthropologist and co-founder of Partners in Health. Farmer had continuously expressed interest in developing a surgical component of medical training to complement the Global Health Residency he helped to develop at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. While there are concerns as to the feasibility of creating fully-functioning and self-sustaining surgical services in developing nations using surgical fellows, Meara, Farmer, and a host of other medical professionals agree that it would be an injustice not to try.
This fellowship has two tracks: one dedicated to research initiatives pertaining to global surgery, and another devoted to clinical/surgical training in resource-poor settings. This fellowship is a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare that combines surgical training with the advanced study of public health.
Health Care Quality

Meara has been active in the health care policy arena. In 2007, he was chosen to serve both on the American College of Surgeons Health Policy Steering Committee and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Federal Affairs Committee. He was one of the authors of two papers on the topic .
Lectures/Papers
Meara has lectured a , both in the US and on an international level, in the past ten years, on various topics in plasticsurgery. He also has had over forty published journal articles In renowned journals including the Journal of Pediatrics , The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery , Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal , and has contributed to three books, as well as had a hand in editing six.
Selected Publications
*Greene AK, Mulliken JB, Proctor MR, Meara JG, Rogers GF. Phenotypically unusual combined craniosynostoses: presentation and management. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2008 Sep; 122(3):853-62
*Lee SJ, Dondey J, Greensmith A, Holmes AD, Meara JG. The effect of fronto-orbital advancement on strabismus in children with unicoronal synostosis. Ann Plast Surg. 2008 Aug: 61(2): 178-80
*Greensmith AL, Holmes AD, Lo P, Maxiner W, Heggie AA, Meara JG. Complete correction of severe scaphocephaly: the Melbourne method of total vault remodeling. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2008 Apr: 121(4): 1300-10
*Boyadjiev, SA, Meara JG, Boggan, J, et al. Genetic Analysis of Non-syndromic Craniosynostosis. Orthod Craniofacial Res. 2007;10(3):129-137.
*Tomlinson JK, Morse SA, Bernard SP, Greensmith AL, Meara JG. Long-term outcomes of surgical tongue reduction in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Plast Reconst Surg. 2007;119 (3) 992-1002.
*Blake WE, Chow CW, Holmes AD, Meara JG. Nasal dermoid sinus cysts: a retrospective review and discussion of investigation and management. Ann Plast Surg. 2006;57(5):535-40.
*Tomlinson JK, Liem NT, Savarirayan R, Meara JG. Isolated and syndromic syngnathism: management, implications, and genetics. Ann Plast Surg. 2006;57(2):231-5.
*Downer SR, Meara JG, Da Costa AC, Sethuraman K. SMS text messaging improves outpatient attendance. Aust Health Rev. 2006;30(3):389-96.
*Da Costa AC, Walters I, Savarirayan R, Anderson VA, Wrennall JA, Meara JG. Intellectual outcomes in children and adolescents with syndromic and nonsyndromic craniosynostosis. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2006;118(1):175-81; discussion 182-3.
*Hurvitz KA, Rosen H, Meara JG. Pediatric cervicofacial tissue expansion. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2005;69(11):1509-13.
*Downer SR, Meara JG, Da Costa AC. Use of SMS text messaging to improve outpatient attendance. Med J Aust. 2005;183(7):366-8.
*Meara JG, Smith EM, Harshbarger RJ, Farlo JN, Matar MM, Levy ML. Blood-conservation techniques in craniofacial surgery. Ann Plast Surg. 2005;54(5):525-9.
*Da Costa AC, Savarirayan R, Wrennall JA, Walters I, Gardiner N, Tucker A, Anderson V, Meara JG. Neuropsychological diversity in Apert syndrome: a comparison of cognitive profiles. Ann Plast Surg. 2005;54(4):450-5.
*Greensmith AL, Meara JG, Homes AD, Lo P. Complications related to cranial vault surgery. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am. 2004 Nov: 16(4): 465-73.
*Gluchacki B, Meara JG, Mason WH, Barry T, Reinisch JF. Improving care after primary cleft palate surgery. J Healthc Qual. 2002 Nov-Dec: 24(6): 4-9, quiz 9-10

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