In 1993, soon after I was appointed Dean of the UCSF Medical School, two faculty members came to me to discuss and idea. They were Dr. Douglas Grey, then-Chief of Surgery at San Francisco Kaiser and Clinical Professor of Surgery at UCSF, and Dr. Bill Schecter, Chief of Surgery at San Francisco General Hospital. Their idea was as compelling as it was simple and significant. They wanted to mobilize volunteer surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists to provide free outpatient surgical care to uninsured patient in Bay Area hospitals. -Haile Debas, MD, Executive Director, Global Health Science, UCSF
