Transforming medical education in Liberia through an international community of inquiry.

A critical component of building capacity in Liberia's physician workforce involves strengthening the country's only medical school, A.M. Dogliotti School of Medicine. Beginning in 2015, senior health sector stakeholders in Liberia invited faculty and staff from U.S. academic institutions and non-governmental organizations to partner with them on improving undergraduate medical education in Liberia. Over the subsequent six years, the members of this partnership came together through an iterative, mutual-learning process and created what William Torbert et al describe as a "community of inquiry," in which practitioners and researchers pair action and inquiry toward evidence-informed practice and organizational transformation. Incorporating faculty, practitioners, and students from Liberia and the U.S., the community of inquiry consistently focused on following the vision, goals, and priorities of leadership in Liberia, irrespective of funding source or institutional affiliation. The work of the community of inquiry has incorporated multiple mixed methods assessments, stakeholder discussions, strategic planning, and collaborative self-reflection, resulting in transformation of medical education in Liberia. We suggest that the community of inquiry approach reported here can serve as a model for others seeking to form sustainable global health partnerships focused on organizational transformation.

Liberia's First Health Workforce Program Strategy: Reflections and Lessons Learned.

Following civil war and the Ebola epidemic, Liberia's health workforce was devastated, essential health services and primary care were disrupted, and health outcomes for maternal and child mortality were amongst the worst in the world. To reverse these trends, the government of Liberia developed the Health Workforce Program (HWP) Strategy 2015-2021. With the goal of building a resilient and responsive health system to ensure access to essential services and the ability to respond to future crises, this strategy aimed to add 6,000 new professionals to the workforce. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we share lessons learned from the program's development and first years of implementation.

Community-Institutional Partnerships to Strengthen Maternal Health Care: Case Study of the First Obstetrics and Gynecology Specialty Training Program in Liberia.

Despite major setbacks to its health infrastructure and health workforce capacity, Liberia began its first post-graduate training program for physicians in 2013. Specialty training in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, General Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology were the four inaugural Residency programs that recruited graduates from the country's only medical school, A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine. The Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program was designed to combat the rising maternal mortality and strengthen health systems to improve maternal care. The program adapted in the face of challenges posed by limited financial support, lack of specialist-faculty and general physician shortages and the Ebola virus outbreak. The manuscript discusses the challenges and successes of the program and demonstrates how the shortage of teaching faculty was addressed by developing a collaboration between local government and educational communities, a United States (US) academic institution and volunteers from the Global Health Service Partnership.

Health Professional Training and Capacity Strengthening Through International Academic Partnerships: The First Five Years of the Human Resources for Health Program in Rwanda.

BACKGROUND: The Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program (HRH Program) is a 7-year (2012-2019) health professional training initiative led by the Government of Rwanda with the goals of training a large, diverse, and competent health workforce and strengthening the capacity of academic institutions in Rwanda. METHODS: The data for this organizational case study was collected through official reports from the Rwanda Ministry of Health (MoH) and 22 participating US academic institutions, databases from the MoH and the College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) in Rwanda, and surveys completed by the co-authors. RESULTS: In the first 5 years of the HRH Program, a consortium of US academic institutions has deployed an average of 99 visiting faculty per year to support 22 training programs, which are on track to graduate almost 4600 students by 2019. The HRH Program has also built capacity within the CMHS by promoting the recruitment of Rwandan faculty and the establishment of additional partnerships and collaborations with the US academic institutions. CONCLUSION: The milestones achieved by the HRH Program have been substantial although some challenges persist. These challenges include adequately supporting the visiting faculty; pairing them with Rwandan faculty (twinning); ensuring strong communication and coordination among stakeholders; addressing mismatches in priorities between donors and implementers; the execution of a sustainability strategy; and the decision by one of the donors not to renew funding beyond March 2017. Over the next 2 academic years, it is critical for the sustainability of the 22 training programs supported by the HRH Program that the health-related Schools at the CMHS significantly scale up recruitment of new Rwandan faculty. The HRH Program can serve as a model for other training initiatives implemented in countries affected by a severe shortage of health professionals.

Building Workforce Capacity Abroad While Strengthening Global Health Programs at Home: Participation of Seven Harvard-Affiliated Institutions in a Health Professional Training Initiative in Rwanda.

A consortium of 22 U.S. academic institutions is currently participating in the Rwanda Human Resources for Health Program (HRH Program). Led by the Rwandan Ministry of Health and funded by both the U.S. Government and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the primary goal of this seven-year initiative is to help Rwanda train the number of health professionals necessary to reach the country's health workforce targets. Since 2012, the participating U.S. academic institutions have deployed faculty from a variety of health-related disciplines and clinical specialties to Rwanda. In this Article, the authors describe how U.S. academic institutions (focusing on the seven Harvard-affiliated institutions participating in the HRH Program-Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary) have also benefited: (1) by providing opportunities to their faculty and trainees to engage in global health activities; (2) by establishing long-term, academic partnerships and collaborations with Rwandan academic institutions; and (3) by building the administrative and mentorship capacity to support global health initiatives beyond the HRH Program. In doing this, the authors describe the seven Harvard-affiliated institutions' contributions to the HRH Program, summarize the benefits accrued by these institutions as a result of their participation in the program, describe the challenges they encountered in implementing the program, and outline potential solutions to these challenges that may inform similar future health professional training initiatives.

Malaria control in South Africa 2000-2010: beyond MDG6.

BACKGROUND: Malaria is one of the key targets within Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whereby the disease needs to be halted and reversed by the year 2015. Several other international targets have been set, however the MDGs are universally accepted, hence it is the focus of this manuscript. METHODS: An assessment was undertaken to determine the progress South Africa has made against the malaria target of MDG Goal 6. Data were analyzed for the period 2000 until 2010 and verified after municipal boundary changes in some of South Africa's districts and subsequent to verifying actual residence of malaria positive cases. RESULTS: South Africa has made significant progress in controlling malaria transmission over the past decade; malaria cases declined by 89.41% (63663 in 2000 vs 6741 in 2010) and deaths decreased by 85.4% (453 vs 66) in the year 2000 compared to the year 2010. Coupled with this, malaria cases among children under five years of age have also declined by 93% (6791 in 2000 vs 451 in 2010). This has resulted in South Africa achieving and exceeding the malaria target of the MDGs. A series of interventions have attributed to this decrease, these include: drug policy change from monotherapy to artemisinin combination therapy, insecticide change from pyrethroids back to DDT; cross border collaboration (South Africa with Mozambique and Swaziland through the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative- LSDI) and financial investment in malaria control. The KwaZulu-Natal Province has seen the largest reduction in malaria cases and deaths (99.1% cases- 41786 vs 380; and 98.5% deaths 340 vs 5), when comparing the year 2000 with 2010. The Limpopo Province recorded the lowest reduction in malaria cases compared to the other malaria endemic provinces (56.1% reduction- 9487 vs 4174; when comparing 2000 to 2010). CONCLUSIONS: South Africa is well positioned to move beyond the malaria target of the MDGs and progress towards elimination. However, in addition to its existing interventions, the country will need to sustain its financing for malaria control and support programmed reorientation towards elimination and scale up active surveillance coupled with treatment at the community level. Moreover cross-border malaria collaboration needs to be sustained and scaled up to prevent the re-introduction of malaria into the country.

A glutamine-rich factor affects stem cell genesis in leech.

Leech embryogenesis is a model for investigating cellular and molecular processes of development. Due to the unusually large size of embryonic stem cells (teloblasts; 50 - 300 µm) in the glossiphoniid leech, Theromyzon tessulatum, and the presence of identifiable stem cell precursors (proteloblasts), we previously isolated a group of genes up-regulated upon stem cell birth. In the current study, we show that one of these genes, designated Tpr (Theromyzon proliferation), is required for normal stem cell genesis; specifically, transient Tpr knockdown experiments conducted with antisense oligonucleotides and monitored by semi-quantitative RT-PCR, caused abnormal proteloblast proliferation leading to embryonic death, but did not overtly affect neuroectodermal or mesodermal stem cell development once these cells were born. Tpr encodes a large, glutamine-rich (~34%) domain that shares compositional similarity with strong transcriptional enhancers, many of which have been linked with trinucleotide repeat disorders (e.g., Huntingtons).