Supporting African Medical Education

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is one of the American medical schools and universities part of a program that invests $130 million over a five-year period for the transformation of the African medical education and the rise of the numbers of health workers.

The program is called the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and it is sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Ambassador Eric Goosby, US Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State reminded that it is a priority to “dramatically transform African medical education, to increase the number of qualified care providers available and develop the scientific expertise needed for research and innovation.

“This expertise will empower countries to lead health programs and fulfill their responsibility for the health of their people.”

Through MEPI, faculty at the Center for Global Health at Feinberg will take part in a partnership to improve medical knowledge and skills at the six top medical schools in Nigeria.

This consortium will be led by the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and it will focus on excellence in delivering health service to the community.

This partnership will also work on developing clinical and translational research abilities of medical students, physician trainees, and public health graduate students.

The Principal Investigators on the award are Dr. David Olaleye and Dr. Isaac Adewole, both being faculty at University of Ibadan and adjunct professors at Feinberg, and the Project Director for Northwestern University will be Dr. Robert L. Murphy, Director of the Center for Global Health.

The Center for Global Health currently has two other awards in Nigeria, one through PEPFAR and the other through the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health.

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative award extends the presence and expertise of Northwestern University around global health concerns in Nigeria.

The goal is to form 140,000 new, quality health care workers and improve the capacity of the participating countries to deliver primary health care.

The grants have been awarded directly to the African institutions in a dozen countries and there is a network of about 30 regional partners, country health and education ministries and more than 20 US collaborators, part of this initiative.