University of Virginia Joins AMPATH Consortium
The AMPATH Consortium welcomes the University of Virginia (UVA) Center for Global Health Equity as the newest academic health center to join the partnership to improve health and well-being around the world.
UVA will bring expertise in emergency medicine to the partnership, but also has interest in collaborating in trauma research, toxicology, orthopedic surgery and plastic surgery. UVA will expand their participation beyond medicine with a multi-disciplinary approach that will include a collaboration between the UVA School of Law and the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret (LACE), based at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Kenya, as well as future multi-disciplinary collaborations related to nursing, urban and rural planning and engineering. LACE provides free legal aid services to patients at MTRH as well as other affected by legal issues and those who have survived sexual and gender-based violence.
“UVA has joined the AMPATH Consortium with a commitment to working with Kenyan colleagues to grow emergency medicine education, research and care and UVA’s International Human Rights Law Clinic will partner with LACE,” said Adrian Gardner, MD, MPH, executive director of the AMPATH Consortium. “We look forward to seeing how their AMPATH involvement will grow and evolve.”
Under the leadership of Dr. John Simiyu Tabu, senior lecturer at Moi University College of Health Sciences and head of the emergency department at MTRH, UVA is anticipated to have six weeks of emergency medicine faculty in Kenya each year for workshops, lectures and bedside teaching in the emergency room (ER). Their faculty will also provide remote lectures for pediatric and adult emergency medicine and toxicology. Emergency medicine residents from UVA will complete rotations in Kenya and UVA will host Moi University students, residents and/or other faculty for month-long rotations in toxicology at UVA.
Dr. Josh Easter and Dr. Amita Sudhir visited Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital earlier this year.
UVA faculty involvement is led by Rebecca Dillingham, MD, MPH, director of the Center for Global Health Equity and professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases and international health; Amita Sudhir, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine and residency program director for the department; Josh Easter, MD, MSc, associate professor of emergency medicine and director of emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine and visiting student electives and Nelson Camilo Sánchez, assistant professor of law and director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic.
“AMPATH Kenya’s long-term and sustainable partnership model presents a unique opportunity for UVA faculty and trainees,” said Dr. Sudhir. “We look forward to building relationships with our counterparts in Eldoret to improve emergency care both in Kenya and the US. We are also eager to share this opportunity with our colleagues in schools and departments across the university,” she continued.
Dr. Sudhir and Dr. Easter met with Dr. Simiyu and other faculty in both the pediatric and adult emergency departments on recent trips to Eldoret to establish the initial structure and goals for UVA’s engagement. Sanchez has also visited Eldoret to begin the partnership with the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret (LACE).
The emergency medicine department at UVA includes 25 faculty members, including three who are currently involved in global health. The trauma research group includes a faculty member who serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on trauma research worldwide. Other faculty are involved in informatics, data science and ultrasound.
The team at UVA became acquainted with the AMPATH partnership through their former emergency medicine chief resident Austin Lee, MD, who completed a rotation in Eldoret as an Indiana University (IU) medical student and saw opportunities for UVA to become a partner in the AMPATH Consortium. Dr. Lee is now an adjunct faculty member at IU in Bloomington Dr. Lee also completed an emergency medicine global health fellowship at AMPATH Consortium member Brown University.
The mission of the UVA Center for Global Health Equity is to promote health in resource-limited settings by fostering the commitment of students, faculty and partners from many disciplines to support health for all. In addition to UVA’s partnership with AMPATH, they also have global health partnerships in Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania. The focus of these partnerships include graduate medical education in anesthesia and critical care, research training, microbiology, nursing, engineering and research in diarrheal disease and tuberculosis.