Dear Colleague,
The Lancet Commission report continues to command attention and interest among diverse groups and nations. In this issue, we'd like to focus on what's happening in the Sub-Saharan African region.
Our two partners--the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP) and the U.S. Institute of Medicine Global Health Forum--both have initiatives that will involve several nations in this region. The IAMP, under the direction of Dr. Bernie Jones, has disseminated the report to 68 countries, and Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa were among the 7 countries they've selected to hold in-country launches of the report. Nigeria's will be held on 17 May, South Africa's on 22 June, and the other two will be announced shortly.
Ghana is one of the four innovation collaboratives chosen by the U.S. Institute of Medicine's Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education. Dr. Nelson Sewankambo, Principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, is spearheading their plans for a four-school collaboration to improve what he describes as deteriorating standards in ethics and professionalism among health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and Uganda specifically. Read more about their objectives for instructional and institutional reforms in the story below.
In the Sub-Saharan Africa region, we'd also like to acknowledge the great work of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI). This U.S. government-sponsored partnership initiative has granted awards to 13 medical schools in 12 African countries in order to transform medical education so it's more relevant to the health needs of each country. They have an upcoming symposium in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 7-9 August 2012.
You'll find more news and upcoming events on our website at http://www.healthprofessionals21.org.
Best regards,
Julio Frenk, Dean, Harvard School of Public Health and Commission Co-chair
Lincoln Chen, President, China Medical Board and Commission Co-chair
