Medical Education Partnership Initiative Is Renewed

The Fogarty International Center within the National Institutes of Health has renewed funding for the five-year Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) between Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMC) and the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI).  

MEPI aims to address the disparity between the burden of disease and the shortage of physicians and health researchers in Tanzania, where there is one physician for every 125,000 people. The country faces high rates of HIV/AIDS, increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases like cancer and heart disease, and significant health challenges for women and children.

“We’re deeply gratified at this recognition of our work in building a successful program to train the next generation of Africa’s physician leaders and research scientists,” said Kien Alfred Mteta, MEPI’s principal investigator. “Our accomplishments together over the last five years have laid a strong foundation upon which we will build with this new round of funding.”

MEPI, Round 1

The first round of funding for the MEPI program provided critical infrastructure to support medical education and the development of research competency at KCMC. Procuring fast, reliable access to the Internet led to the development of an electronic library and a computer lab for faculty and students complete with videoconferencing capabilities. 

Students were then provided with electronic tablets to use in their studies and faculty received them to use as part of patient care in the hospital. Technology was incorporated into the education program as students took their exams on computers, greatly relieving the workload of faculty.

Technology supported important changes in the way medical education was delivered. Team-based teaching and learning was a significant pedagogical change from traditional methods of education. This new approach resulted in better student performance outcomes, while lessening the teaching burden on faculty.

Key to the progress in the educational realm at KCMC was the donation by the Duke School of Medicine of a proprietary learning content management system for medical students that was developed at Duke and has since been spun off into a for-profit corporation.

“MEPI has certainly transformed the education program at KCMC,” said Mramba Nyindo, a professor of parasitology and immunology at KCMC who has been with the college since its inception in 1997. “Students graduate from KCMC better prepared than their peers at other African universities to address the challenges of providing medical care in our country.”

In addition, Nyindo said, the new teaching methods and technological infrastructure made possible by MEPI have made it easier for him as an educator to teach an increasing number of students. “It has made my work more interesting and effective,” he said.

Medical students at KCMC are equally enthusiastic about their educational experience. “The educational experience has changed a lot at KCMC (under MEPI) because even undergraduate students are involved in research activities,” said medical student Wilson Bigambo. His fellow medical student Joshua Youze concurred: “The tablet helped me a lot in my studies. Being able to readily access the Internet made it easy to communicate with other students and professors.” 

While the education program at KCMC was the primary focus of the first round of MEPI funding, the development of research competency efforts took many forms as well. Experts provided workshops on all facets of research, from grant writing to ethics to manuscript development. A pilot grant program to support mentored research training projects was put in place, followed by an annual research symposium to showcase the efforts of junior faculty at KCMC.

“Our work at KCMC represents Duke’s longest standing and most robust global partnerships,” said John Bartlett, MEPI’s co-principal investigator, professor of medicine and global health and DGHI’s associate director of research. Bartlett has collaborated with colleagues at KCMC since 2001.

MEPI, Round 2

The next iteration of MEPI (MEPI 2) seeks to advance the careers and bolster research capacity of junior faculty at KCMC and the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences in Mwanza, Tanzania.

“Our young faculty face competing priorities when it comes to patient care, teaching students and performing research, which is not unlike the challenges faculty face in many parts of the world,” said Ahaz Kulanga, KCMC deputy provost and the MEPI 2 leader at KCMC. “In order to address the health challenges facing our country and continent, we need to make a major commitment to increasing the research productivity of our junior faculty. MEPI 2 allows us to do this.”

MEPI 2 will devote resources to training 18 junior faculty members while providing “protected time” for research activities. In addition, at least five research support staff will be trained and resources will be devoted to bolstering support in epidemiology and biostatistics to ensure rigorous research practice. 

Research efforts will focus on HIV, non-communicable diseases—including heart disease, kidney disease, cancer and mental illness—and threats to maternal and child health. Each research priority area will have two leaders: one from Tanzania and one from the U.S. An emphasis will be placed on training for implementation science and health services research.

“MEPI 2 will allow KCMC to develop a culture of research and create a model of excellence in research training,” said Kulanga. “We are delighted to build on the success of prior MEPI funding with a renewed focus on research.”

“‘Capacity building’ is a phrase that is frequently used and often unrealized,” said Bartlett. “MEPI’s success in truly building capacity has set KCMC on the course for leadership in medical education and research in all of Africa,” he said.