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Our faculty and staff are passionate about global health and committed to contributing to education and program development around the world. We’ve spent time in Nicaragua, Botswana, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa as well as in Eastern Europe and South America. The focus of much of our ongoing global health work is with Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, an outstanding palliative care program in Moshi, Tanzania. The Duke Center for Palliative Care provides education support, technical assistance, and funding to create what has become an outstanding regional palliative care resource center.
Duke Palliative Care has participated for the past 3 years in an innovative program to provide mentorship and technical skills to aspiring palliative care researchers in Africa. Run through the University of Cape Town, the program’s directors are Klaus Von Pressentin UCPT) and Richard Harding (King’s College; Cicely Saunders Institute). Faculty and mentees come together both virtually and in person to support emerging projects, to identify grant opportunities, and to support career development. In November I had an opportunity to attend in person and I joined the group at the University of Cape Town for a week-long intensive. Faculty came from Africa, the UK, and the US, while scholars represented all corners of Africa, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. It was inspiring to spend time with this group of exceptional researchers who face an uphill battle to integrate research in what are often severely underresourced environments. And it was exciting to see how research and innovation in these settings is making a difference.
It’s a rare opportunity to be reminded of how fortunate we are and to appreciate all of the health care resources that we take for granted. I was granted that opportunity in December, spending a week working with the palliative care program at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania. One of the top hospitals in the country, KCMC recently celebrated its 50th anniversary and serves as a thriving academic medical center and primary referral hospital in the Kilimanjaro region.
Duke has a longstanding partnership with KCMC, thanks in large part to the efforts of Dr. John Bartlett, a Duke Professor of Medicine. Dr. Bartlett has dedicated much of his career to supporting KCMC and building its capacity to grow, helping to build its education and research programs, mentoring a generation of physicians and leaders, and ensuring that new programs and initiatives are locally owned and sustainably resourced. Dr. Bartlett first introduced me to KCMC and invited me to stay in his home in Moshi on this visit. It’s safe to say that our palliative care collaboration with KCMC would not have happened without Dr. Bartlett’s influence.
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