Nancy Falco Chedid, MD (On Leave)

Clinical Assistant Professor
Human Anatomy

Dr. Nancy Chedid’s career has straddled medicine and music, Boston and Lebanon, surgical practice and didactic teaching. She completed her M.D. degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. For two decades she practiced hand surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery at the hospitals of Harvard Medical School. With expertise in the management of difficult wounds in diabetic patients, she contributed to the definitive text on this subject, The Diabetic Foot. She collaborated on numerous interdisciplinary design projects with biomedical engineers in Boston, and she founded that city’s first networking and focus group for women surgeons and surgeons-in-training.

Dr. Chedid’s pre-med degree was a B.A. from Yale University, where she graduated summa cum laude with Honors in Music. As a medical student and as a resident in surgery, she sang with the choruses of the Baltimore Symphony and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She continues to give musical performances in support of LAU’s Medical Student Association, and she has lectured in the School of Arts and Sciences on the relationship between music and medicine. She is a frequently invited speaker at career and health-awareness forums for university and secondary-school students. Dr. Chedid is an avid writer of prose and in 2014 published the memoir Snow on the Barbecue, and Other Wonders of Everyday Life in Lebanon.

At present she devotes most of her time to the teaching of medical students — the best job in the world. Since arriving at LAU she has been a teacher of anatomy first and foremost, but she is also heavily involved in administrative work, simulation activities, surgical skills training, and interprofessional education. Additionally, in the fall 2020 she was appointed Director of Student Affairs. Currently Dr. Chedid is conducting research in three areas of study: surgical and comparative anatomy of the extensor mechanism of the hand; health-seeking behaviors among non-urban populations in Lebanon; and identification of the essential attributes of activities that motivate and inspire students during their undergraduate medical education.

Selected Publications

Books & Chapters

• Falco Chedid N. Reconstruction of soft tissue defects of the foot. Chapter in The Diabetic Foot. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ (2002)
• Chedid N. Snow on the Barbecue — and Other Wonders of Everyday Life in Lebanon. Revue Phenicienne Publications, Beirut (2014)

Articles

• Falco Chedid N, Chedid LG. Deconstructing the keratoacanthoma: A tool for measuring and characterizing a tumor of the dynamic skin surface. Proceedings of the International Conference on Surface Metrology, Worcester Polytechnic University, Worcester, MA (2009), VII-2
• Chedid N. The tragedy of Lebanon: The summer of our discontent. Newton Magazine, October 2006:26-32
• Chedid N. Awash in grief for beautiful Lebanon. The Boston Globe West, Sept. 7, 2006
• Falco N, Upton J. Infantile digital fibroma: An unusual tumor of childhood. Journal of Hand Surgery (1995) 20A(6):1014-1020
• Pribaz JJ, Falco N. Nasal reconstruction with auricular microvascular transplant. Annals of Plastic Surgery (1993) 31:289-297
• Falco N, Pribaz JJ, Eriksson E. Vascularization of skin following implantation of an arteriovenous pedicle. Microsurgery (1992) 13:249-254
• Falco N, Eriksson E. Facial nerve palsy in the newborn: Incidence and outcome. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (1990) 85:1-4
• Falco N, Eriksson E. Idiopathic facial palsy in pregnancy and the puerperium. Surgery Gynecology and Obstetrics (1989) 169:337-340
• Mooseker MD, Graves TA, Wharton KA, Falco N, Howe CL. Regulation of microvillus structure: Calcium-dependent solation and cross-linking of actin filaments in the microvilli of intestinal epithelial cells. Journal of Cell Biology (1980) 87:809-822

Professional and Research Interests

• Human anatomy (general and hand)
• Anatomy education
• Surgical simulation and surgical skills training
• Humanities, arts, and narrative methodology in the medical curriculum
• Transformative events in medical education
• The role of mentorship among women physicians
• The environment as a public health issue in Lebanon

Education and Training

• B.A. in Music, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.
• M.D. degree, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.
• Studies in computer animation, Wentworth Institute of Technology (non-matriculated), Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
• Residency in General Surgery, Harvard Fifth Surgical Service at Deaconess Hospital, Boston
• Residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Harvard-Brigham-Children’s Program, Boston
• Fellowship in Surgery of the Hand, New York University Medical Center and Beasley Hand Surgery Associates, New York, New York, U.S.A.
• Clinical Simulation Diploma, Lebanese American University, Byblos

Professional Memberships and Organizations

• Member, Lebanese Order of Physicians
• Member, Massachusetts Medical Society
• Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and Honors in Major, Yale University
• Founder, Greater Boston Women’s Plastic Surgery Initiative
• Emeritus member, Industrial and Professional Advisory Committee to Biomedical Engineering Program, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston

Awards

• Departmental Prize in Recognition of Performance on Plastic Surgery In-Training Examination, Harvard-Brigham-Children’s residency program
• Highest rating for lecturer in instructional course, Management of the Diabetic Foot, Harvard Medical School Continuing Education, Boston

Keywords

anatomy, hand surgery, surgical skills, surgical simulation, health-seeking behaviors, music and medicine