Harvard-MIT Plastic & Hand Surgeon

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

Dr. Douglas Chin is one of the leading Plastic & Reconstructive surgeons and Hand & Upper Extremity surgeons in Northern California. He received his medical education at the M.I.T.-Harvard Medical School Division of Health Science & Technology before completing surgical training at NYU, Bellevue Hospital, and UCLA. He is quadruply trained in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Orthopedic Hand Surgery, Microsurgery, and Cosmetic Surgery. He is a leading expert in peripheral nerve disorders and catastrophic hand injuries. He was formerly a research associate at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and completed a doctoral thesis on burn immunology at the Harvard Medical School and M.I.T. A graduate of Harvard College, M.I.T., and the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Chin completed surgical training in Plastic Surgery at the NYU Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and in Upper Extremity Surgery and Microsurgery in the Department of Orthopedics at the UCLA Center for Health Sciences. Dr. Chin is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery with Certified Added Qualification (CAQ) in Surgery of the Hand. He was elected Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 2005. Dr. Chin has extensive experience providing medical-legal testimony as a treating surgeon, consulting physician, and expert witness. He has completed multiple trainings in forensic medical reporting and is certified by the American College of Disability Evaluating Physicians and Physicians for Human Rights. He serves as Qualified Medical Evaluator for the State of California and has served as an expert witness in state and federal courts on cases related to personal injury, industrial injuries, product liability, criminal justice, asylum petitions, and human rights violations. Dr. Chin has provided trial testimony in California, Alameda County, and federal courts and has provided expert witness testimony in cases before the International Criminal Court and Special Procedures of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In addition to bringing his experience as a treating physician to medical-legal testimony, Dr. Chin also brings his unique expertise as a surgery center operator, having developed and managed ambulatory surgery centers in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York. Internationally, Dr. Chin has done extensive work in the field of human rights, particularly women's rights. He is Founding Member of Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (an initiative of the American Medical Women's Association) and is an affiliate member of Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Chin serves as consultant to UNHCR, UNICEF, and organizations related to human rights & the displaced/marginalized. He is a subject matter expert on Afghanistan with special interests at the intersection of healthcare and human rights. He serves as Advisor to the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations and has collaborated on a number of official events at the U.N Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. General Assembly, and the World Health Organization's World Health Assembly in Geneva. Dr. Chin was a 2022 nominee for the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award