MedSend-Headshots-90

David Watt

MD FAAOS

Dr. Watt retired from the practice of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine in 2021 as part of Northwestern Medicine in the western suburbs of Chicago. Educated at Wheaton College, Northwestern University and University of Illinois, his practice focused on shoulder and knee surgery and sports medicine, being the team doctor for Wheaton College and Wheaton North High School. He is still involved in volunteer parttime sports medicine with the Wheaton College football team and the US Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle and Big Air teams at World Cup competitions. Dr. Watt has done short-term medical missions in Cote d’Ivoire, Romania, Mexico, China and for thirty years volunteered at the Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago. He continues to live in the Chicago area with his wife and enjoys bicycling, snowboarding and playing with their grandchildren. He is currently studying at the Wheaton College Graduate School for a Master of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies.

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.