{"id":48289,"date":"2025-03-03T13:51:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T18:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=48289"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:33:01","slug":"weill-bugando","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/weill-bugando\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cornell Has Helped Tanzania Train (Many!) More MDs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The more than two-decade-old partnership between Weill Cornell Medicine and a school in the East African nation has benefitted all<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story was condensed from a <\/em>multimedia feature<\/em><\/a> in the <\/em>Cornell Chronicle that\u2019s the first in a five-part series.<\/em> Part two<\/a> is on the treatment of hypertension; part three<\/a> is on medical research.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Susan Kelley<\/strong>; photography by No\u00ebl Heaney<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emergency room had a bed, a desk, and a chair\u2014and no ER doctor to serve it. Entire wards were filled with hundreds of children suffering from Burkitt lymphoma, a childhood cancer common in East and Central Africa, as well as tuberculosis, HIV, and congenital heart defects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut,\u201d recalls Dr. Dan Fitzgerald<\/a>, \u201cthere was not a single pediatrician in the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year was 2005, and Fitzgerald and his colleagues had been invited to Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania, by the newly formed Weill Bugando School of Medicine<\/a>, part of an institution that would become the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS), to assist with the school\u2019s development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bugando Medical Centre<\/a>, the university\u2019s teaching hospital, serves more than 15 million people\u2014a population the size of NYC, Los Angeles, and Chicago combined. As the region\u2019s referring hospital, it gets the sickest of the sick. Some patients travel two days by boat across Lake Victoria to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Dan Fitzgerald (center) with Weill Bugando PhD students.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven the director of the hospital at the time said, \u2018We\u2019re a big teaching hospital, but we\u2019re staffed like we\u2019re a small dispensary out in the village,\u2019\u201d says Fitzgerald, the B.H. Kean Professor in Tropical Medicine and director of Weill Cornell Medicine\u2019s Center for Global Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because Tanzania, famous for Mount Kilimanjaro and iconic nature reserves such as the Serengeti, had a dubious distinction: the fewest physicians of nearly any nation in the world. In 2002, just one doctor<\/a> served every 50,000 people. (In comparison, the U.S. had nearly 130 doctors per 50,000 people in 2000.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A partnership between Weill Cornell Medicine and the Tanzanian school hasn\u2019t just helped Weill Bugando graduate more than 2,220 MDs since it was founded in 2003. It has also enabled both medical schools to improve their students\u2019 education, boost healthcare in Tanzania with strategies applicable to the U.S., and conduct innovative research on diseases that affect people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFast forward 20 years: now there is just an amazing group of physician educators in multiple departments\u2014in pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology,\u201d Fitzgerald says. \u201cAnd Weill Bugando School of Medicine is now recognized as really one of the best medical schools in East Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Weill Bugando School of Medicine is now recognized as really one of the best medical schools in East Africa.<\/p>\nDr. Dan Fitzgerald<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Although Weill Bugando is not part of Weill Cornell Medicine, they share a common philanthropist\u2014Sanford \u201cSandy\u201d Weill \u201955\u2014and a memorandum of understanding to exchange faculty and students, and to collaborate on education, research, and patient care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe quality of care is improving, and this benefit goes now to the community here in Mwanza,\u201d says Dr. Stephen Mshana, professor of clinical microbiology and infectious disease and deputy vice chancellor of planning, finance, and administration at CUHAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two institutions came together in the late 1990s, when Mwanza\u2019s religious leaders wanted better healthcare for their city. Mwanza is Tanzania\u2019s second-largest city, with a population of 1.1 million, a bit smaller than Dallas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perched at the edge of Lake Victoria, the second-largest lake in the world, Mwanza is known for its delicious tilapia; fishing is a major occupation. Enormous rock formations dotting the landscape give it the nickname Rock City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
The city of Mwanza and Lake Victoria, seen from the rooftop of Bugando Medical Centre.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Before Weill Bugando was founded, \u201cthe medical care in that region was terrible,\u201d says Dr. Estomih Mtui<\/a>, a professor of anatomy in radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine who is from Tanzania and acts as a crucial bridge between the two schools. \u201cPeople were dying of schistosomiasis, conditions you never see in the U.S., and malaria and malnutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Dr. Peter Le Jacq, MD \u201981, a Maryknoll priest, had been working at Bugando Medical Centre since 1987. City leaders asked him if any medical schools in the U.S. would share their curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The then-dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Antonio Gotto, obliged. And he pledged full support, with the backing of Sandy Weill, who then chaired Weill Cornell Medicine\u2019s board. Le Jacq played a pivotal role in facilitating the partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a Tanzanian vision, and their confidence was infectious,\u201d Fitzgerald says, \u201cand it just helped us keep going, working with them and following their lead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Estomih Mtui with a visitor in his Weill Cornell office.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The collaboration is one of several\u2014in Brazil, Haiti, and India<\/a>\u2014operating through Weill Cornell Medicine\u2019s Center for Global Health. The programs aim to develop innovations and improve health among the world\u2019s poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, Weill Bugando and Weill Cornell Medicine collaborated to train faculty members, adapt the curriculum, and launch a residency program where Weill Bugando students can earn specialty certifications. Most recently, Weill Bugando created a PhD program in which doctors conduct innovative research on the diseases they see in their clinics and that affect millions around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the beginning, a steady stream of rotations and visits fueled the partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weill Bugando and Weill Cornell Medicine collaborated to train faculty members, adapt the curriculum, and launch a residency program where Weill Bugando students can earn specialty certifications. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mshana spent four months in NYC in 2001 as one of the first 10 faculty members who served as teaching assistants while working with Weill Cornell Medicine faculty to develop the curriculum and learn to teach basic sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mshana was especially interested in the problem-based learning approach he saw there\u2014in classrooms and also during rounds. He subsequently integrated it at Weill Bugando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found it very good, because it\u2019s making the student think critically and connecting with the clinical practice early,\u201d Mshana says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like they are just given everything. They have to find the solution on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Benson Kidenya, MS \u201911, head of biochemistry at Weill Bugando, spent several years going back and forth between the two institutions while earning a master\u2019s degree in clinical epidemiology and health services research at Weill Cornell Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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