Skip to main content

Emily R Smith

Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine
Emergency Medicine
310 Trent Drive, Room 302, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Emily Smith, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Duke University with research interests including children’s global surgery, poverty metrics, 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.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine · 2021 - Present Emergency Medicine, Clinical Science Departments
Assistant Research Professor of Global Health · 2022 - Present Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute · 2025 - Present Duke Cancer Institute, Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published October 26, 2023
Good Reads for the Fall: New Books From Duke Authors
Published October 23, 2023
DGHI's Emily Smith Asks What It Means to Love Your Neighbor
Published March 4, 2021
Moms on a Mission. These moms work as doctor and scientists. But they’ve also taken on another job: Fighting COVID-19 misinformation online.

View All News

Recent Publications


Financial impact and healthcare expenditures among surgical patients in Burundi.

Journal Article World J Surg · February 2025 BACKGROUND: The largest proportion of people at risk of catastrophic expenditures for surgical care live in low- and middle-income countries. This study aims to evaluate the financial impact among surgical patients at Kibuye Hope Hospital (KHH) in Burundi. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Essential Equipment for Baseline Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Care: A Global Cross-Sectional Survey.

Journal Article Laryngoscope Investig Otolaryngol · February 2025 OBJECTIVE: Availability of surgical equipment and access to essential clinical services remains an important barrier to surgical care delivery, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aims to characterize the relative availabil ... Full text Link to item Cite
View All Publications

Education, Training & Certifications


University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 2016 Ph.D.
University of South Carolina, Columbia · 2006 M.S.P.H.
Wayland Baptist University · 2003 B.S.