The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) will provide support to African institutions to strengthen and build the clinical and research capacity of medical educational institutions in Sub‐Saharan Africa and thereby help to strengthen the human capacity for health.
MEPI has three main objectives:
- Improve the quality of clinical education and clinical care;
- Enable graduating medical students to remain in their home country to practice, serve as faculty, and/or conduct research related to the implementation of PEPFAR and other public health priorities; and
- Enhance the recruitment and retention of qualified academic faculty through partnerships and research opportunities.
Project Title: Programmatic- Expanding innovative multidisciplinary medical education in Zambia
Awardee Organization: University of Zambia
Partner Organizations: Vanderbilt University, University of Alabama—Birmingham, Copperbelt University School of Medicine, University of Maryland
The people of sub-Saharan Africa are the most heavily affected by the HIV epidemic. The Zambian programmes for expansion of HIV therapy and prevention services has been very impressive but can only be sustained if more health care workers are trained. The single center for most advanced health care worker training in Zambia is the University of Zambia (UNZA). We enhanced the training programs at UNZA to allow education of health care workers throughout Zambia.
Read about Dr. Vermund's MEPI award announcement in VUMC’s Reporter.