GAP Program

Benefits

PAPS shall provide to the GAP Fellow(s) the following

• Registration for the annual meeting
• Roundtrip economy airfare to the annual meeting
• Observership sponsored by the Local Organizing Committee Chair either before or after the annual meeting
• Hotel room and meal expenses for the annual meeting and observership
• USD$500 GAP Scholarship
• A textbook of choice
• PAPS membership without fees for 5 years following the annual meeting

Expenses for family members are NOT provided

Eligibility

Candidates must reside and practice in a low- or middle-income country, as defined annually by the World Bank.

They must have completed their pediatric surgery training prior to applying.

The candidate should not have the resources to provide his/her own funding to attend the meeting.

If you live in a developing nation and think you may qualify, please contact our current This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Fellowship Requirements

PAPS prefers that candidates seek a PAPS member to nominate them for the GAP program. Nominations of candidates can be made to the GAP Chair by any PAPS member in good standing. Candidates can also directly request the GAP Chair to nominate them if they do not know any PAPS members. The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2023.

Each GAP Fellow shall be expected to deliver a presentation at the annual meeting. He/she shall be asked to submit the title and short summary of his/her presentation to the GAP Chair and the Program Chair one month prior to the annual meeting. He/she shall also be encouraged to submit an abstract to the scientific program if he/she so wishes; however, such abstract shall be judged using similar criteria as all submitted abstracts.

Required Application Forms

1) GAP Application Form - to be completed by the GAP Applicant
2) GAP Nomination Form - to be completed by the Nominating PAPS Member

Email questions to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Legacy of M. James Warden

M. James Warden, MD was born in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada on November 29, 1923.  He earned his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1950.  He then completed his general and pediatric surgical training in Detroit from 1951 to 1955.  He started his pediatric surgical practice at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ontario in 1956.  A few years afterwards, he moved to southern California to join Kaiser Permanante, where he built an extensive pediatric surgical career. Dr. Warden joined the surgical faculty at the University of California, Irvine in 1984.  In 1990, he was appointed chief of the division of pediatric surgery at UCI.  In that capacity, he built the division as a major academic pediatric surgical center in southern California.

Dr. Warden had a particular interest in international pediatric surgery.  He lectured and operated in several foreign countries, including Kenya and China.  He established a guest assistance program, now called the M. James Warden Global Alliance Partnership, in the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons.  This program offers financial assistance to pediatric surgeons from low and middle-income countries to attend, and lecture at the annual PAPS meeting. To date, the program has allowed dozens of such surgeons to attend PAPS, become members, and forge relationships with surgeons across PAPS, who continue to support them clinically and academically. 

Outside of medicine, Dr. Warden’s passions were his family, hockey, sailing, and fishing.  He departed peacefully on August 11, 1999 while fishing in Alaska.   He is remembered at UCI and throughout the pediatric surgical community as a warm and caring surgeon, teacher, and friend.  The GAP program is a tribute to Dr. Warden’s legacy, and his four decades of compassionate care of children with surgical diseases around the world.

Read this feature article "Twenty-five years of the James Warden Guest Assistance Program of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons" by Dr. Cynthia Reyes, former PAPS President (2017-2018).

Previous M. James Warden Guest Assistance Program Participants