Emily Smith
Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health

Contact
emily.smith1@duke.edu(909) 684-6508
310 Trent Drive, Room 302, Durham, NC 27708
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Emily Smith
Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health
Emily Smith, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Duke University with research interests including children’s global surgery, health-systems strengthening in low-income countries, health economics, and global health policy. As an epidemiologist, she has worked with her in-country partners at the Edna Adan Hospital in Somaliland for the past 5 years on projects related to children’s surgical care, including defining the epidemiologic burden, assessing poverty trajectories among families with a child’s surgical need, geospatial analyses, and healthcare infrastructure. Prior to DGHI, her work at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) involved utilizing epidemiological methods, mathematical modeling techniques and cost-effectiveness research to determine effectiveness of various testing strategies among HIV exposed infants in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Smith also frequently talks about the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of “love-thy-neighbor” on social media and her Substack blog with a monthly reach of 2-4 million. Her work has been featured in TIME Magazine, NPR, the Washington Post, Christianity Today, and Baptist News Global.
Publications
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Niyukuri A, Zadey S, Shrime MG, Imanishimwe P, Fader J, Espinoza P, et al. Financial impact and healthcare expenditures among surgical patients in Burundi. World J Surg. 2025 Feb;49(2):438–47.Smith ER, Alayande B, Ameh EA, Seyi-Olajide JO, Cotache-Condor C, Espinoza P, et al. Surgical care is critical for advancing adolescent health in low and middle-income countries. World J Surg. 2024 Sep;48(9):2037–9.Yousef Y, Cairo S, St-Louis E, Goodman LF, Hamad DM, Baird R, et al. GAPS phase II: development and pilot results of the global assessment in pediatric surgery, an evidence-based pediatric surgical capacity assessment tool for low-resource settings. Pediatr Surg Int. 2024 Jun 19;40(1):158.Gwanika Y, Rice HE, Metcalf M, Espinoza P, Kajoka HD, Staton C, et al. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in childhood and adolescent cancer care in northern Tanzania: a cross-sectional study. BMC Cancer. 2024 Apr 12;24(1):457.
See more publications at Scholars@Duke