SHORT BIO
Dr Igor Vaz
MD, Urologist, Reconstructive Surgeon
Recent Awards:
2024 - Recipient of the SIU-Albert Schweitzer International Teaching Award granted by The International Society of Urology, for his notable contributions to teaching urology in developing countries.
2022 - Recipient of the ISOFS Award for outstanding contribution and dedication towards a world free of obstetric fistula.
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Dr. Vaz is currently the President of ISOFS (The International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons).
Dr. Vaz is currently the President of ALU (The Lusophone Association of Urologists).
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He is an active member of The College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA), Lusophone Association of Urologists (ALU), Pan African Urological Surgeons Association (PAUSA), International Society of Urology (SIU), Latin American Association for Pelvic Floor (ALAPP), International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Portuguese Association of Urology (APU), European Association of Urology (EUA), Society of Genitourinary Reconstructive Surgeons (GURS), International Continency Society (ICS), among others.
Dr Vaz received his medical degree in 1980 by University Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique, specialization in general surgery in 1991, FCS Surgery in 1995, Urology, by OrMM and Porto University in Portugal, and is a member of examiners at COSECSA.
He worked as a military doctor and performed more than 2,000 war emergency and elective surgeries in five years as the only doctor in a region with 150,000 inhabitants. Since 1981, he has worked in Mozambique as the director of several hospitals and as Head of the Surgery Department and the Director of Urology Services at Maputo Central Hospital. He serves as Regent of the Chair of Urology at the Faculty of Medicine at University Eduardo Mondlane, and conducts postgraduate teaching in urology, general surgery, gynecology and obstetrics.
In his professional experience in general surgery, oncology, urology, urogynecology, erectile dysfunction, male and female urinary tract reconstructive surgery, complex obstetric fistula surgery, total pelvic reconstruction, pediatric urology, disorders of sexual development (DSD), gender dysphoria, and genitourinary feminization, Dr. Vaz has groundbreaking work that includes techniques developed for very complex—including those deemed “incurable”—cases of obstetric/traumatic fistula and urethral and bladder neck reconstructions, augmentations cystoplasty, neobladder, neovagina.
In 2016, he founded Focus Fistula Mozambique, a non-profit organization to provide free surgery to vulnerable and low-income women, girls, and children. Focus Fistula is at the forefront of fistula and urogynecology training and treatment programs in Mozambique. Led by Dr Vaz, the organization has offered, to date, more than 1,500 free fistula and reconstructive surgeries, supported by national and international partners.
Dr. Vaz travels all over the country and internationally training health professionals in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe.