About 20 years ago while in residency training, I participated in AMPATH Kenya through Indiana University and spent two months at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya. It was an invaluable experience to learn about the similarities and differences in health disparities and medical conditions experienced by people in Kenya vs people in the US. Currently, I am an associate professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. We have a relatively new global health partnership with AMPATH Kenya and are in the process of building an AMPATH Mexico partnership. I now have an opportunity to return to Eldoret, to help train and educate both US and Kenyan medical students and resident physicians who are rotating at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Medical trainees will benefit from working with me because I am certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Tropical Medicine/Traveler's Health and I bring a valuable international perspective to their experience. I have past experience in Kenya, work with vulnerable populations in the US, and am part of the AMPATH Mexico collaboration.
I hope to be able to help learners build medial knowledge about conditions they may never or rarely see in the US as well as diving deeper into their understand of conditions common to people in both countries. I would also like to help them make connections between their experience in Kenya and the needs of vulnerable populations in the United States.
Our AMPATH Mexico group will benefit from my going because I can look for best practices in Kenya that might translate to Mexico and seek out project ideas that may allow collaboration across US, Kenya, and Mexico.
I went back to MTRH 20 years after my first trip there. I had gone and spent two months there as a resident and this time I went as an attending physician in support of students and residents from the US who were rotating there. I had a chance to teach these visiting trainees as well as Kenyan registrars. I also spent some time meeting stakeholders for potential projects in the future.
