During this clinical elective in Rwanda, I will partner with local faculty to lead two educational blocks for medical students at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) medical school in Rwanda during their first clinical rotation. My two blocks will focus on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. These sessions will focus on clinical reasoning, bedside teaching, and team-based care through a combined internal medicine and pediatrics lens—emphasizing the continuum of health across the lifespan. In addition to structured teaching, I will participate in daily wards rounds, co-facilitating patient discussions, case presentations, and diagnostic reasoning exercises alongside Rwandan trainees and attending physicians.
To enhance engagement and sustainability, I plan to integrate an innovative, low-resource-adapted approach to medical education that combines problem-based learning, peer teaching, and reflective practice. By tailoring these strategies to the local context and aligning them with existing curricula, I aim to support capacity building and promote long-term skills in clinical reasoning, communication, and collaborative care.
This elective will strengthen bidirectional learning: while Rwandan students gain exposure to new pedagogical methods and structured clinical teaching, I will deepen my understanding of global health systems, culturally responsive education, and the shared challenges of practicing resource-conscious medicine. Ultimately, this collaboration will contribute to a more sustainable, context-driven model of medical education—empowering learners in Rwanda while shaping my own growth as a clinician-educator committed to equity and global partnership.
This project aims to benefit the medical students at UGHE in Rwanda—a pioneering institution reimagining what equitable, community-centered medical education can look like. UGHE stands at a defining moment as it prepares to graduate its first class of physicians. These future doctors will serve as leaders in reshaping healthcare delivery across Rwanda and beyond. By collaborating with UGHE’s faculty to facilitate ward-based teaching, this project will directly strengthen the school’s capacity for interactive, context-driven medical education.
The impact, however, extends beyond a single institution. This initiative is designed to foster a sustainable, bidirectional partnership between UGHE and U.S. residency programs with strong commitments to global health. Through shared educational models, longitudinal mentorship, and exchange of teaching strategies, this collaboration aims to cultivate a community of clinician-educators who value cross-cultural learning and the continuity of care across the lifespan.
Patients at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali will directly benefit from this initiative through enhanced quality of bedside care and improved patient-centered clinical decision-making. By leading daily rounds and integrating interactive teaching methods, this program will strengthen the diagnostic reasoning, communication, and teamwork skills of medical students and trainees caring for inpatients. Furthermore, by modeling structured clinical reasoning and collaborative bedside teaching, the program will promote a learning environment where education and patient care reinforce one another.
Ultimately, this project invests in a population uniquely positioned to transform healthcare delivery—the next generation of Rwandan physicians and global health–minded clinicians—while modeling how shared learning across borders can redefine medical education for a more equitable world.
I hope this project will have a lasting, multidimensional impact on medical education and global academic collaboration. In the short term, it will strengthen medical training at the UGHE, introducing an interactive, educational model that emphasizes clinical reasoning, communication, and collaborative learning. However, the project’s most significant impact lies in its long-term potential to shape how medical education is delivered and sustained in Rwanda and beyond. Currently, the country faces a critical gap in residency and subspecialty training opportunities, leading many trainees to pursue advanced training abroad. By piloting a model of bidirectional educational partnership—linking UGHE with U.S. residency programs—this initiative aims to lay the foundation for a future in which residency education can be developed and strengthened within Rwanda itself.
The long-term vision is to develop a reciprocal model of shared education—one in which UGHE and U.S. residency programs engage in virtual teaching platforms, co-developed case libraries, and joint academic projects, ushering the partnership to evolve into a sustainable network of clinician-educators dedicated to advancing equity and innovation in global health training. By aligning educational methods with local context, the program would ensure that Rwanda’s growing medical education infrastructure continues to evolve in a way that is both autonomous and globally connected.
Ultimately, the impact of this project will extend far beyond the duration of the elective. It represents an investment in human capacity, collaborative leadership, and shared vision. For Rwanda, it offers a model to strengthen medical training pipelines and empower a new generation of physician-educators to remain and lead within their healthcare system. For U.S.-based programs, it provides a framework for rethinking how global health partnerships can be equitable, sustainable, and educationally enriching for all participants.
I had a blast at UGHE introducing 16 of the brightest medical students to clinical medicine as their teacher for the first 3 weeks of their internal medicine rotation. We spent our days reviewing exciting clinical cases, taking care of patients on the wards and learning about clinical medicine and how to best treat the patients they serve with integrity and compassion. I am so excited to see all the amazing things they accomplish and happy Doximity helped support me so I could play a small part in their educational journey.
