MEPI

Emergency Care Comes into Focus in Ghana

Carol Bales and Gracey VaughnDr. Eno Biney is an emergency medicine specialist at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, the second-largest city in Ghana. She’s part of a new cohort of health workers that are changing the way emergency care happens in the country.

See Dr. Eno Biney on the cover of Impact magazine. This issue is all about health workers.

“I chose to specialize in emergency medicine because I realized that it was one of the most lacking specialties in our country,” Eno says. “There wasn’t any form of organized emergency treatment of patients.”

Instead, Ghanaians injured in accidents or suffering from medical, surgical, or obstetric emergencies were rushed to feebly equipped emergency care centers that didn’t have specially trained health workers or triaging systems in place. During her medical training, Eno saw the resulting delays in diagnosis and treatment—and lost lives. Read more »

Tracking Graduates from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College: Progress, Benefits, and Challenges

An exultant white building surrounded by lush gardens, the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo) gazes at Mount Kilimanjaro, known as “Mama Kili,” with each sunrise. Located in Moshi, Tanzania, the school has been training physicians for over a decade. The first 15 medical doctors graduated in 2002.

While it is still a young institution, KCMUCo has been working hard to address the unmet health care needs of sub-Saharan Africa by increasing the number of health workers and retaining them in Tanzania. Through the support of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the school is focusing on scaling up training, with the number of annual graduates rising to 150 to date. KCMUCo has also updated its programs of study to ensure that medical students are acquiring relevant competencies to provide care for rural and underserved populations. Read more »

Focusing on MEPI: Two Views with Common Goals

Heather RossIt is rare that a person is able to view one event through two lenses. I was privileged to be able to do so as I moved to CapacityPlus from a position with the Coordinating Center of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at George Washington University (GWU).

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative
MEPI is funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and supports African medical schools as they work to further PEPFAR’s goal of increasing the number of new health workers by 140,000. It is a network of more than 30 medical schools in sub-Saharan Africa that is supported by the Coordinating Center, a joint effort of GWU and the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation, and by other stakeholders, including CapacityPlus. Read more »

Responding to the Urgent Need for More Health Workers: Rebecca Bailey on Health Workforce Education and Training

Rebecca BaileyAt 23, CapacityPlus’s Rebecca Bailey mailed two applications: to law school and to the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps called her first, and that’s when her work to improve health worker education and training took root.

As a communications officer for CapacityPlus, I do a lot of writing about our work to address the global health workforce shortage, but I rarely write about the people doing the work. Therefore it was a pleasure for me to speak with Rebecca and learn about her career and her current position as health workforce development team lead. Read more »

Syndicate content