global partnerships

Professional Development, Education and Clinical Care

Our mission is to create an environment that supports and enables professionals, as individuals and members of a multidisciplinary team, to grow and perform in their respective clinical specialties through education, training, mentorship, and professional development.

Building on a decade-long partnership in clinical research and scientific innovation, MUST approached Massachusetts General Hospital Global Health to help build capacity for medical specialty training in Uganda. Departmental leadership and trainees at both institutions were surveyed to gauge enthusiasm for education and clinical care partnerships, areas of common interest, ability to host or send educators and learners to the partner site, funding mechanisms, licensing constraints on clinical practice, and particularities of each subspecialty. Based on these results and continued interest, a formal needs assessment and gap analysis was performed in 2012 to capture baseline data for each clinical department at MUST. Recommendations were made in the following areas: 1) Human Resources for Health, 2) Professional Development, 3) Infrastructure, 4) Research Management, and 5) Fundraising. The reports also include short-and long-term goals, potential partners, action items, and next steps. These analyses serve as a framework for the MUST Departments to develop work plans, as well as a communication tool for advocacy, fundraising, and discussions with MGH and other partners.

“There are currently 14 global partnerships in varying stages of engagement between MGH and MUST/MRRH”

Clinical and administrative leaders from both institutions exchange visits with their counterparts in Mbarara and Boston, continuing to build relationships, observe clinical care and educational sessions, and to learn more about mutually beneficial opportunities. Surgical camps and skills labs have been hosted at MUST, valuable equipment has been donated, and hundreds of hours of didactic and clinical teaching have been delivered. In addition, a Masters curriculum was recently developed for the Department of Nursing, twenty Master of Medicine scholarships were granted to under-resourced clinical departments, and a monitoring & evaluation tool has been developed to measure the progress and effectiveness of each partnership.

The info-graphic below summarizes results from a Survey that was conducted in October 2014 across the programs that have a partnership with MUST. In total, 17 programs participated in the survey and summarized their ongoing activities with MUST.