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Ryan Takenaga

MA, MD, FAAOS

Dr. Takenaga attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied Business Economics. After two years in the business world, he pursued a Masters degree in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University in La Mirada, CA, and then started a Ph.D in Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. A passion to serve those in need prompted him to leave academic philosophy and pursue a career in medicine. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and then completed orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery. He was a partner at EmergeOrtho in Durham, NC and retired from medicine at the end of March 2024. While in practice, he enjoyed working with patients with general orthopedic problems and was experienced in fracture care, joint replacement, hand surgery, and sports medicine, with an emphasis on arthroscopic techniques. Dr. Takenaga is married and resides in Durham with his wife, Nancy, and their son Dylan and two daughters, Sophie and Lizzy. Together, they have also gone on medical mission trips to Kijabe, Kenya and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Flourishing by Design: Imagining Medical Missions for 2040

Our predecessors faithfully built institutions that have served for generations. Our challenge is different. We have inherited those institutions into a world they could scarcely have imagined. Population growth, urbanization, changing disease patterns, financial pressures, conflict, climate shocks, and technological change are reshaping healthcare across low- and middle-income countries.

Drawing on new data about the Christian health ecosystem, strategic consultations with global and African Christian health leaders, and field experience across Africa and Asia, this session explores what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040.

Together we’ll imagine what it will take for Christian health ministries to flourish by 2040, strengthening resilient institutions, cultivating exceptional local leadership, and mobilizing a broader range of Christian expertise from medicine and nursing to governance, education, engineering, finance, data science, and technology.

How can Christian health ministries become indispensable partners in building resilient health systems that reflect the compassion and hope of Christ? The legacy of the next generation of medical missions will be measured not only by the number of missionaries sent, but by the resilience, flourishing, and Christ-centered witness of systems they strengthen.