MEPI Mozambique

Logo MEPI Moçambique

Project name: The Universidade Eduardo Mondlane/UCSD Medical Education Partnership Initiative
Poject Number: R24TW008908
Project Period: 27/09/2010 – 31/08/2015
Principal Investigator: Prof. Emilia Noormahomed

Background:

  • 2008- The partnership between the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) starts in a Research project on HIV malaria.
  • 2009- UEM-UCSD collaboration has grown with the introduction of a exchange program of Internal Medicine Residents.
  • 2010- Mepi Program Initiates between UEM/UCSD
  • 2011- Creation of a Training core with UEM, UCSD, Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT) to leverage research in three public universities Mozambique and South-South collaboration

Introduction to MEPI Mozambique Program:

The Medical Education Partnership Initiative program (MEPI) of Mozambique is a partnership between the University of California San Diego and a consortium of national public universities to improve institutional capacity on medical education for pre- and postgraduate in Mozambique, through the inclusion of a strong research component in medical specialization programs, the implementation of teaching strategies to ensure the spread of education to other areas of the country, and retention of specialists trained in the public system. Funded by PEPFAR and NIH, MEPI supports 12 African institutions, forming a network of over 30 Regional Partners Ministries of Health and Education Countries, over 20 US institutions and foreign collaborators.

Mission:

The Universidade Eduardo Mondlane-UCSD Medical Education Partnership will enhance the capacities of the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Unilurio and Unizambeze to identify, train and retain the workforce required to meet the medical education and medical research needs of Mozambique over the next two decades.

Aims:

  • Specific Aim 1. To enhance the capacity of the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in pre and postgraduate medical education through the expansion of a bilateral partnership with the University of California San Diego (UCSD), initially focusing on communicable diseases, including: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and related infectious diseases.
  • Specific Aim 2. To further develop capacity through training and partnership to conduct operational, epidemiological, translational, and clinical research at UEM and allied institutions to improve healthcare in Mozambique.
  • Specific Aim 3. To enhance electronic connectivity and information technology (IT) at UEM and the Maputo Central Hospital (MCH), and train Mozambican professionals who can sustain this infrastructure.
  • Specific Aim 4. To develop retention and sustainable strategies by enhancing relationships among the UEM Faculty of Medicine (FoM), the Ministries of Health and Education, the Mozambique Medical Council and Mozambique´s new medical schools to jointly address the short and long-term medical human resource needs of the country.

Most significant impacts of the MEPI program in the last five years:

  • MEPI Impact on Capacity Building:
    • 18 Residents completed internal medicine specialty training between 2010 and 2014 which represented an increase of 400% over the previous 2 decades. An additional 19 of a total of 46 residents currently in training at DoM, will receive that specialty designation in the next 4 years.
    • The introduction of the firm chief program provided additional training in teaching methods and research and allowed better monitoring and evaluation teaching and health care delivery within the Department of Medicine. It has contributed to the increased in the number of ‘associate’ instructors for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and has substantially improved the mentoring process.
    • The residency exchange program between UCSD and UEM with 3-month clinical rotations at UCSD has provided peer mentoring to 24 Mozambican residents. Fifty UCSD residents completed 1-month rotations at MCH with participation in clinical teaching and research activitiesThe presence of UCSD residents in Maputo enhanced English fluency of Mozambican residents and provided additional peer mentoring in bedside and didactic teaching.
    • Four masters degrees (Masters of Health Professional Education, Masters in Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Masters in clinical nutrition and Masters in Food Technology) were established at Unilurio. The introduction of the Masters degree programs, especially the Master in Health Professionals Education, will further increase the number of qualified medical educators at UEM, UniLurio and UniZambeze and will equip them with the improved teaching and assessment skills required to cope with the increased number of medical students being admitted into the schools.
  • Use of Technologies:
    • There was improvement of the connectivity between the Faculty of Medicine (FOM), Maputo Central Hospital (MCH) and the Internet gateway at UEM’s main campus (Informatics Centre).
    • Three Virtual Libraries with 10, 5 and 45 computers were created at the DoM and Surgery (MCH) and at FoM-UEM, allowing free access to medical literature for students and health care workers.
  • MEPI Impact on Retention
    • A multidisciplinary group of faculty from UEM, UCSD, UFBA and the IHMT-UL has been created that will provide ongoing mentoring of operational, epidemiologic/public health, translational and clinical research capacity development within Mozambican partner institutions. A motivated and dedicated group of mentees has emerged to carry the effort forward. Rather than being provided as external “enrichment” courses, research training courses have been developed as recurring activities led by Mozambican faculty and have been integrated as obligatory components of postgraduate medical training by the Medical Council. By aligning these activities within the university with recently re-energized national regulatory and governmental entities such as the MMC and the MOH, they have become expectations of trainees and have attracted local investments to ensure sustainability. Adding research capacity as a career path enhances faculty retention and contributes to sustainability of the programmes and projects that have been started.
  • MEPI Impact on Research:
    • To address low productivity due to lack of technical competencies, training programmes in research methods, grant and manuscript writing and human research subject protection were organized for faculty and postgraduate trainees and regularly presented at UEM and Unilurio by UEM faculty and international partners.These programmes have also been formally integrated into the MEPI-supported postgraduate training programme in conjunction with the MOH, the Medical Council and the National Postgraduate Commission.
    • Laboratory infrastructure enhancements and new equipment purchases were made in both the Departments of Microbiology and Pathology. Renovation of these laboratories and additional training of the technical staff converted them into specialized Infectious Diseases and Pathology Laboratory Centres.
    • During the 5 years of the MEPI programme, 62 new research projects (29 at UEM and 33 at Unilurio) involving mentors and collaborators from UEM, UCSD, UFBA and IHMT-UL were proposed in priority areas. Nineteen, of these have received external funding by multiple institutions including the US NIH, mBio Diagnostics, the University of Lisbon; the Gilead Foundation; the German Foundation from research; the INS; the UP-MCH, and the RESMED Foundation.
    • To address the limitations in administrative and fiscal management, a research support centre (the Mozambique Institute for Health Education and Research (MIHER); www.miher.org) was created to provide administrative and fiscal management support to the scientific community of UEM and other public universities within Mozambique and to identify funding agencies that might be interested in supporting research activities. To date, MIHER has administered 12 Research Projects, Coordinated 25 short training courses on research and has designed the Masters currículum at Unilurio.  MIHER has also provided support on Project design, implementation & manuscript writing.
  • MEPI Impact on HIV/AIDS
    • It is estimated that the prevalence of HIV in Medicine Wards and Emergency Departments is 69.1 % and the annual attendance is 8,298 patients. From those, roughly 2,120 patients receive care from MEPI trainees each year.  The University of Eduardo Mondlane MEPI Program has also been providing training to doctors at different clinical facilities. Approximately 200 health care workers of different areas in seven hospitals around the country have benefitted from MEPI training focused on HIV and AIDS related aspects. The trainees including doctors, medical technicians and surgical technicians were trained from 2011 to 2014. Collectively, a total of 12,000 persons around the country with HIV/AIDS have received treatment and care services from MEPI Mozambique.
  • Impact of MEPI on Students:
    • During the five years of the project implementation, the impact on students was trough capacity provided to pre and postgraduate students and expansion of a bilateral partnership with the UCSD, initially focusing on communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other infectious diseases.

Related Links:

Funders:

Financiadores MEPI Moçambique

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Professor Emilia Noormahomed gives an overview of the MEPI program in Africa and Mozambique.