Kassa Darge, MD, PhD
Scholar
- Radiologist-in-Chief | Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
- Argentina | Austria | Ethiopia | El Salvador
- Medical Education | Pediatric Radiology
Languages: English (fluent), German (fluent), Amharic (fluent), French (semi-fluent)
Bio statement
Kassa Darge, MD, PhD, DTM&P is the William Van Alen Endowed Chair of the Department of Radiology and Radiologist-in-Chief at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Professor of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment as Professor of Surgery. He also serves as Honorary Professor of Radiology at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.
Dr. Darge has been engaged in global health for over 25 years, beginning as a World Health Organization research fellow in Germany and West Africa, where he studied filarial diseases and earned a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Parasitology (DTM&P). He subsequently completed a fellowship in Tropical Pediatrics, contributing to research and care in pediatric malnutrition and tuberculosis. After training in radiology, his focus shifted to pediatric radiology and global education.
In 2008, Dr. Darge established a groundbreaking collaboration between CHOP’s Department of Radiology and Addis Ababa University aimed at strengthening pediatric imaging education and supporting Ethiopia’s radiology residency program. He went on to launch the nation’s first Pediatric Radiology Fellowship Program, which graduated its first two fellows in 2017—marking a milestone in a country of over 100 million people, nearly 60% of whom are children. This initiative remains a model for sustainable capacity building in subspecialty medical education.
Through his leadership in clinical care, research, and global health education, Dr. Darge continues to advance pediatric radiology training and practice both in the U.S. and abroad, with a commitment to improving health outcomes for children worldwide.
Recent global health projects
1. Establishment of the COVID CENTRAL information repository on the website of the Ethiopian Medical Association
2. Curation of a website on pediatric radiology outreach activities in Ethiopia together with the Pediatric Radiology Division of the Department of Radiology of the Addis Ababa University.
Selected publications
Derbew HM, Otero HJ, Zewdneh D, Hailu SS, Darge K. Establishing pediatric radiology in a low-income country: the Ethiopian partnership experience. Pediatr Radiol. 2024 Mar;54(3):392-399. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05713-7. Epub 2023 Jul18. PMID: 37462762.
Andronikou S, Elsingergy MM, Hailu T, Mekete Y, Wieczkowski S, Otero HJ, Darge K. A "global village": promoting research and careers in the pediatric radiology community through diversity. Pediatr Radiol. 2024 Mar;54(3):407-412. doi: 10.1007/s00247-023-05630-9. Epub 2023 Feb 28. PMID: 36853376.
Noor A, Amiruddin R, Belachew B, Jalloul M, Dennis R, Reid JR, Etzel N,Warren K, Sherwani P, Ziehe Moreira L, Saleh Nour A, Darge K, Otero HJ. Global pediatric radiology education-a commentary on our observership program. Pediatr Radiol. 2025 Sep 12. doi: 10.1007/s00247-025-06385-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID:40938436.
Pediatric Radiology Fellowship Creation as an International Education Outreach Effort in Ethiopia. Zember J, Reid J, Gorfu Y, Solomon DZ, Darge K. J Grad Med Educ. 2020 Feb;12(1):98-103. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-19-00291.1.
Wakjira E, Sisay S, Zember J, Zewdneh D, Gorfu Y, Kebede T, Tadesse A, Darge K. Implementing ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction of intussusception in a low-resource country in Sub-Saharan Africa: our initial experience in Ethiopia. Emerg Radiol. 2018 Feb;25(1):1-6. doi: 10.1007/s10140-017-1546-y. Epub 2017 Aug 24. PMID: 28840373.
Wakjira E, Sisay S, Zember J, Zewdneh D, Gorfu Y, Kebede T, Tadesse A, Darge K (2017). Implementing ultrasound-guided hydrostatic reduction of intussusception in a low-resource country in Sub-Saharan Africa: our initial experience in Ethiopia. Emerg Radiol. 2017 Aug 24. doi: 10.1007/s10140-017-1546-y
Back SJ, Darge K, Bedoya MA, Delgado J, Gorfu Y, Zewdneh D, Reid JR (2016). Ultrasound Tutorials in Under 10 Minutes: Experience and Results. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2016 Sep; 207(3):653-60. doi: 10.2214/AJR.16.16402.
Dehaye A, Silva CT, Darge K, Prabhu SP, Andronikou S, Laya BF, Coley BD, Boechat MI.Saving the starfish: World Federation of Pediatric Imaging (WFPI) development, work to date, and membership feedback on international outreach. Pediatr Radiol. 2016 Apr;46(4):452-61.
Last Updated: 07 October 2025