Two-Way Learning for Global Health Equity
#Partnerships
The first two cohorts of the Stanford African Scholars in Global Health program, pictured here, will arrive at Stanford in January and April 2025.
Time spent working or learning in other countries is a vital aspect of a global health physician’s or academic’s training. It helps build understanding of other cultures, fosters new relationships and partnerships, and contributes to the exchange of skills, knowledge, and innovative ideas.
Yet too often, such opportunities are available only to those from high-income countries. A recent review of global health fellowship programs found that just five of 108 offered in the United States were open to candidates from low- and middle-income countries – despite those countries being the focus of much global health research.
Now, the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health (CIGH) has launched an initiative to address this inequity. Announced in fall 2023, the Stanford African Scholars in Global Health program, also called SASH, is designed to promote health equity, capacity strengthening, and unique shared learning between African medical institutions and Stanford.
The three-year program will fund 24 midcareer African physicians across four cohorts to travel to Stanford for six weeks. While there, the African scholars will gain a specific skill set they have identified as a need to improve health outcomes at home. At the same time, they will enrich learning at Stanford by sharing their expertise with the community.
“We are excited to reciprocate the learning and insights our scholars have gained over the years by now hosting African physicians at Stanford, advancing global health equity through true bidirectional partnerships. We also look forward to learning from our visiting scholars.”
– Michele Barry, MD
They will then return to their academic institutions with additional funding and ongoing virtual Stanford faculty mentorship to conduct a yearlong clinical improvement project focused on the skills they acquired. SASH is funded through an independent educational grant from Pfizer and managed by CIGH, in partnership with the Stanford Center for Continuing Medical Education.
“SASH is unique in its ability to fund the home institution of the scholar upon his or her return to ensure ongoing support of the implementation of health improvement projects,” says Director of the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health Michele Barry, MD.
This program builds on CIGH’s longstanding and successful Stanford/Yale Global Health Scholars program, which sends U.S. trainees to partner sites in low- and middle-income countries to train and work alongside local clinicians.
“We are excited to reciprocate the learning and insights our scholars have gained over the years by now hosting African physicians at Stanford, advancing global health equity through true bidirectional partnerships,” says Barry. “We also look forward to learning from our visiting scholars.”
During the first round of recruitment in early 2024, nearly 450 physicians from 28 African countries applied for the first two of four cohorts. The 13 fellows selected for these first cohorts will arrive in January and April 2025.
“This demonstrates an overwhelming need for programs like SASH, not just on the African continent but in other low-resource settings around the world,” says Barry, adding that she hopes to see increased funding and support for programs like these.
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