Dr Frank Smithuis

Founder of Medical Action Myanmar

Dutch-born medical doctor and founder in June 2009 of Medical Action Myanmar, a new medical organisation which has the aim to improve the health of the poorest people in Myanmar. After completing his medical studies in 1987, he started to work as a medical doctor in a refugee camp along the Thai-Cambodian border. After the refugees returned to Cambodia in 1992 he also went to Cambodia to work as a medical coordinator for Medecins sans Frontieres Holland in the West of Cambodia.

In 1994 he began working in Myanmar (Burma), where he was the general and medical director of MSF Holland supervising a large medical program. Initially activities focused on primary health care and malaria. Later activities were extended to reproductive tract infections, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. MSF was the first organisation to start anti-retroviral treatment (ART) for AIDS patients and was responsible for 10,000 patients on ART, or 80% of all patients treated in Myanmar. MSF also managed the largest malaria program in the country with over 250,000 patients treated for malaria each year. Over the years Frank conducted a number of malaria studies in Myanmar investigating the effectiveness of treatment protocols and insecticide treated nets.