Surgical technique can be taught in an operating room. A sense of responsibility for patients who cannot pay is harder to pass along. Dr. Andrew Jacono tries to teach both.

Dr. Andrew Jacono serves as Fellowship Director for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. That role gives him a hand in shaping how young surgeons think about their careers. His fellows learn surgical skills, but they also learn an ethical framework built on using specialized training to help underserved populations.

Teaching Posts and Hospital Leadership

His academic reach extends further. Dr. Andrew Jacono holds an appointment at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also Section Head of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at North Shore University Hospital. Both positions put him in front of medical students and residents, where he encourages them to build humanitarian service into their professional lives.

He teaches from experience. Through the FACE TO FACE project, where he is senior advisor, he has reconstructed the faces of more than 100 domestic violence survivors at no charge. Internationally, he has treated more than 750 children through missions with Healing the Children, the HUGS (Help Us Give Smiles) Foundation, and THAI Children. Those patients come to him with cleft lip and palate, microtia, facial tumors, and burn scars.

He often brings fellow surgeons on these trips, which gives other doctors firsthand exposure to mission work in places such as Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam.

A Philosophy of Skill and Duty

The thread running through his teaching is simple. Expertise in complex facial reconstruction gives a surgeon the ability to change lives, and that ability should not be limited to wealthy patients. Under this view, the measure of a surgeon’s success includes the people helped through donated time.

His own path began with a moment in medical school, when he saw a girl with a cleft lip and palate move from isolation to acceptance after surgery. Dr. Andrew Jacono now hopes to give the next generation a similar lesson early in their training. Refer to this article to learn more.

Follow for more information about Dr. Andrew Jacono on https://www.youtube.com/c/drandrewjacono