In partnership with Lwala Community Alliance (Lwala), VIGH faculty member Troy Moon, M.D., MPH, provided mentorship to Vanderbilt medical student Sarah Heerboth to conduct a study assessing the level of knowledge of obstetric and neonatal danger signs among Community Health Workers (CHW) in rural western Kenya. Lwala centers on a community led health model, transforming traditional birth attendants into CHWs.

Mark Newton, M.D., FAAP, Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Director of Vanderbilt International Anesthesia, recently co-wrote an opinion piece for Devex, a media website for the global development community. The opinion piece focuses on the growing need of anesthesia providers across the world. In particular, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have the fewest number of anesthesia providers.

Sarah Heerboth, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Class of 2019 (expected), recently wrote an article reflecting on her experience working with Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya. Sarah worked at Lwala for her Integrated Science Course (ISC): Global Health, a research immersion course for third- and fourth-year medical students. 

Lwala Community Alliance is seeking a Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow. This is a year-long, stipened position based in rural Western Kenya. The M&E fellow will help with programming and conducting research in a field-based setting. Click here for more information. 

A smartphone application called mUzima, developed for healthcare workers by Vanderbilt’s Martin Were, MD, MS, and his team, is catching on in eastern Africa.

A medical team delivered a baby via cesarean section in South Sudan one night in a room lit by flashlights and cellphones. The woman lived and so did her baby. If it hadn't been for a registered nurse trained to administer anesthesia the woman might have become one more mortality statistic on a continent where needing a c-section can mean death. While women in East Africa have access to hospitals, anesthesiologists are few and far between.

For Dr. Rachel T. Idowu, her Fogarty fellowship in Africa helped her gain the skills needed to conduct research in low-income settings - skills that were immediately useful when she finished the program and began work at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).