Ethiopia Platform
Nearly 20 units across the University of Michigan have collaborative projects underway with colleagues in Ethiopia, making Ethiopia one of UMMS’s emerging platforms of engagement. Most of these partnerships were facilitated by Senait Fisseha, MD, JD, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and Medical Director at the Center for Reproductive Medicine at U-M Health Systems. Current Highlights • Map courtesy of The Lonely Planet
• March 2011, Visit from Dr. Tedros Adhanom, former Minister of Health and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, to explore collaborations with UMMS and SPHMMC • April 2011, Visit to SPHMMC by UMMS faculty • June 2012, Memoranda of Understanding signed with SPHMMC and Ministry of Health • July 2012, SPHMMC OBGYN residency training program launched with 7 residents • August 2012, family planning training integrated into medical education • June 2013, second cohort of 14 new SPHMMC OGBYN residents accepted • 8 Global REACH Faculty Associates from 4 UMMS departments participating in the Ethiopia Platform
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Within the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS), nearly 50 investigators from ten different departments are collaborating on projects ranging from family planning to faculty development; from organ transplant to surgical simulation; and from medical education and post-graduate training to adult and child psychiatry. In association with St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Adaba, U-M has helped launch Ethiopia’s first formal family planning training program for medical trainees. With funding from the Center for Diseases Control/Twinning Center and an anonymous foundation, UMMS started a partnership to strengthen medical education, maternal child health, and family planning in Ethiopia to meet the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals which aim to reduce by three-quarters the number of maternal deaths and reduce by two-thirds the number of child deaths in low- and middle-income countries. (Read more about this initiative on Page 51.) Family planning training was integrated into medical education to establish a three-prong training program at SPHMMC tailored to the unique roles and abilities of midwives, general medical practitioners, and OBGYN residents to increase the capacity of all three groups to offer safe abortion and contraception services. Incorporating this training program will enable SPHMMC to become a Center of Excellence for women’s health in Ethiopia by allowing it to team-train those groups who will, in turn, provide much-needed services when deployed to rural areas. By engaging them in team training, advocacy, and operational research. The goal is to prepare them to become family planning leaders and trainers. With the OBGYN residency and family planning training programs underway, the collaboration between UMMS, SPHMMC, and the Federal Ethiopian Ministry of Health has greatly expanded to include a variety of different departments and schools.
(Left to right) Dr. Mesfin Araya, Provost of SPHMMC; Ms. Sarah Rominiski, Global REACH Senior Research Associate; Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia; Dr. Joseph Kolars, Senior Associate Dean and Director of Global REACH; Dr. Senait Fisseha, Associate Professor and lead of the Ethiopia Initiative; Dr. Lia Tadesse, Vice Provost for Medcical Education, SPHMMC; Dr. Roger Glass, Director of the Fogarty International Center and Associate Director for International Research at the National Insitutes of Health
Page 64 globalreach.med.umich.edu