Since his medical studies, Thom has had interest in Global Surgery. He has been involved in several activities in this area, such as organizing the symposium ‘surgery in low resource settings‘ in 2014. Thom has also been a working group member of the G4 Alliance, which advocates for improving access to basic surgical care for all people worldwide. Thom’s activities and involvement have led to a position as board member of the Netherlands Society for International Surgery. After obtaining his MD degree, Thom specialized in Global Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal Tropical Institute Amsterdam. Since 2017, he has been working as a surgical resident and researcher at Haydom Lutheran Hospital in Tanzania. In collaboration with the VU medical center Amsterdam and Haydom, Thom carries out and supervises a research project on reconstructive surgical missions in low income countries, with an emphasis on burn wound treatments.