Photo captions: Sam Fabiano, MD; Douglas Lundy, MD; Vasco Kupua, MD; and Corey Hicks, PA-C.

If St. Luke’s Chairman of Orthopedic Surgery, Douglas Lundy, MD, were to tally the time he has spent volunteering on medical mission trips to Africa, it might add up to more than a half year of his life.

His most recent journey to the continent—his 30th—took place in December when he traveled to Lubongo, Angola with suitcases filled with precious medical supplies. There, Dr. Lundy taught advanced joint reconstruction and fracture repair by overseeing (and assisting in) complex and challenging orthopedic surgeries.

In the process, he and the local surgeons under his instruction delivered specialized surgical care in an impoverished region where such treatment is, for the most part, unavailable.

“We train African doctors to be surgeons in Africa,” Dr. Lundy explained. “By the time I leave, they are fairly competent in these procedures.”

Dr. Lundy also serves as the Senior Vice President of Medical Services at St. Luke’s, the top-ranked health care system in the country. In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ranked St. Luke’s #1 ahead of Houston Methodist and Mayo Clinic as the nation’s top health system for quality, safety and patient experience—an objective recognition reaffirming St. Luke’s preeminent position as a leader among the largest and most respected health care providers in the country.

On his cell phone, Dr. Lundy has a photo of one of the patients he treated in Angola, a teenage boy with a severely deformed knee (varus deformity of his proximal tibia) causing his lower leg and foot to jut sharply to the side.

“I’ve been doing that stuff for decades,” Lundy said matter-of-factly about the kind of deformity that is relatively uncommon in the United States. During the boy’s operation, his knee was repaired and his lower leg reoriented, which will allow him to walk with a more normal gait.

Dr. Lundy’s medical mission work is conducted through the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons. Dr. Lundy, an Evangelical Christian, often invites colleagues with different religious beliefs to accompany him.

Traveling with him to Angola in December were Dr. Mike DeRogatis, a fifth-year St. Luke’s orthopedic resident; Dr. Samantha Weiss, a fourth-year St. Luke’s orthopedic resident; and St. Luke’s Physician Assistant Corey Hicks. Together, the team performed more than a dozen life-changing operations at CEML Hospital in Lubongo (https://www.inmed.us/ceml-hospital-angola/).

“It’s truly the most rewarding experience,” Dr. Lundy said.

It will not be long before Dr. Lundy is once again on a plane, suitcases filled with medical supplies, crossing the ocean to share his expertise, talents – and compassion. He has trips planned for Ukraine in mid-February, Kenya in March and back to Angola again in December.

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network with annual net revenue of more than $4.5 billion. With 23,000+ employees at 16 hospital campuses and 350+ outpatient sites, it is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest employer.

The Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital is based at the Bethlehem Campus.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school. It also operates the nation’s oldest continuously operated School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 60+ fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 530+ residents and fellows.

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognized St. Luke’s ahead of nationally renowned Mayo Clinic and Houston Methodist as the nation’s three highest performing health systems for quality, safety and patient experience – affirming St. Luke’s status as a leader among the largest and best-known health care providers in the country.

St. Luke’s has been named a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. It is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. In 2025, the Network earned straight A’s from Leapfrog across all of its acute care hospitals. It has earned 100 Top Hospital designations from Premier 11 years in a row, including in 2021 when its flagship University Hospital was identified as THE #1 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy