our history

The relationship between MUST and MGH began in 2003 with a study on adherence to HIV medications. Now, the GHC manages 21 research projects in Uganda. The GHC cultivates professional development, clinical care, and education in 14 clinical departments at MUST and MRRH. With over 100 local staff, six permanent expatriate staff, several specialty fellows-in-residence, and an annual budget of over $1.5M, the GHC has expanded significantly in both breadth and depth. These programs and partnerships underlie GHC’s fundamental commitment to making a generational impact on the burden of disease and human suffering in Uganda.

Our partnership provides training opportunities to physicians, nurses ancillary healthcare personnel and support staff in both Uganda and the United States. In Mbarara, the GHC jointly designed and created the Immune Suppression Syndrome Clinic, and has since raised its profile to be among the leading academic HIV treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa. Shortly thereafter, the GHC provided technical expertise to the first university-wide Grants and Contracts Office in Uganda that now manages over $2.4M in awards. The GHC supports over 20 Masters of Medicine (residency) and Masters in Nursing Science scholarships as well over 200 visitors each year to support human resource capacity building at MUST.

For the medical community in Boston, the GHC provides worldwide connections and local infrastructure necessary to train MGH residents in global health.  Mbarara serves as the primary research site for 21 research projects, which are co-led by clinicians and researchers in Mbarara and Boston and form the base of the GHC. Moreover, the GHC provides the necessary support for bilateral learning that enables medical students, residents, fellows and administrators to travel between both sites.

Among many achievements over the past years, the GHC is particularly proud of our joint effort to develop both individual and shared capacity, visible most prominently in the establishment of the MUST Grants Office (MGO), the employment of over 100 local and expatriate staff in research and partnership projects, the flourishing relationship between the MUST Department of Community Medicine and the MGH Department of Medicine through the Global Medicine residency program in Bugoye, and the education and subspecialty training of young physicians and nurses through the Masters of Medicine and Masters of Nursing Science Fellowships.