Summer 2019
Paige McMahon
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
This past summer provided me with a meaningful, transformative experience. We spent a lot of time both in the hospital and working on our respective research studies, in addition to exploring Mwanza and meeting new people. I truly enjoyed my time at Bugando, observing physicians in various departments. One of my favorite and most challenging weeks was when we shadowed in the pediatrics department, as we were introduced to a team of very dedicated doctors facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. Below is a description of our time in pediatrics...Read more
Meredith Pollie
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
During my time in Tanzania, I felt like I was learning constantly. Every moment, from working with members of the Epidemiology Department at KCMC on our cervical cancer screening research project, to discussing the Tanzanian health insurance policy with our research PI/mentor over chapati and chai during lunch breaks, to listening to management discussions among physicians on rounds during our sessions spent shadowing on the OB/GYN wards, was an opportunity to gain first-hand insight into a new culture, a different healthcare system, and a way of life so foreign from my own...Read more
Cheyenne Smith
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
This summer I had the opportunity to spend 8 weeks in Tanzania at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College. I worked with the Department of Epidemiology and the Department of OB/Gyn on a project to assess knowledge and attitudes of women in the semi-urban distract of Arusha towards cervical cancer and willingness to perform self collection. I was working jointly on this project with my classmate, Meridith Pollie. During our time, we were able to participate in multiple different aspects of the research project, I conducted an extensive literature review search of studies conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa that had evaluated self-collection as a technique for cervical cancer screening...Read more
Summer 2017
Richmond Woodward
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
With the support of two ophthalmologists at Bugando Medical Center, Dr. Evarista Mgaya and Dr. Christopher Mwanansao, his host mentor Dr. Robert Peck, and WCM mentor Dr. Grace Sun, Richmond researched the prevalence of diabetic and hypertensive retinopathy, associated risk factors, and knowledge gaps among people with diabetes and hypertension attending outpatient clinics at Bugando Medical Center. Richmond also collaborated with local medical students on their ophthalmology rotation to run screening sessions. The research results showed a higher than expected prevalence of diabetic retinopathy and revealed knowledge gaps among people with hypertension about the effects of high blood pressure on the eye.
Francesca Voza
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Downs, Francesca rotated in the departments of medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN and surgery alongside medical students from Weill Bugando Medical Centre. Francesca also had the opportunity to set up a quality improvement study aimed at reducing the incidence of hypertension in the Mwanza Region. She made weekly trips with Dr. Downs to rural villages around Mwanza City to conduct blood pressure screening and to educate community members about methods for preventing hypertension. Francesca learned clinical skills and a new language, as she helped with the care of the local population.
Joanna Gao
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Joanna spent two months in rural villages in Tanzania working on schistosomiasis research. The research project, led by Dr. Downs, aims to characterize schistosome-induced alterations in cervical gene expression, cervical cell populations, and cervicovaginal microbiota in women. When she was not assisting in data collection and patient enrollment, Joanna spent time in the clinics of Weill Bugando Medical Centre. The experience provided exposure to the Tanzania healthcare system and revealed the importance of cultural competence, with physicians balancing the respect of local customs and religious norms with the science of clinical medicine.
Mary Cox
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC)
With the support of her host mentor, Dr. Michael Mahande, Mary worked with Tanzanian medical student Elizabeth Danstan on a retrospective cohort study to examine the prevalence and risk factors associated with diabetes during pregnancy among women who delivered at KCMC. Her role focused on data entry, cleanup, and analysis. Mary also spent time rounding in the hospital with medical students, residents, and attendings in the OB/GYN department.
Summer 2016
Benjamin Brown
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
With the support from his host mentor, Dr. Michael J. Mahande, Benjamin worked with the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center’s birth registry program. He assisted with data entry and interviews of English-speaking mothers, updating a database that was a few months behind. He collaborated with other medical students, who were using the registry for epidemiological studies of stillbirth and placenta previa, on writing and refining scientific papers. Benjamin also observed deliveries and obstetric surgeries in the labor ward, shadowed in the dermatology and ophthalmology clinic, and went on pediatrics, medicine, and surgery rounds.
Yuefan (Frances) Chen
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
During her time in the Ophthalmology department at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Yuefan shadowed residents, observed surgeries, and conducted clinical research with Dr. Makupa and WCM mentor, Dr. Grace Sun. Her research question asked the relationship between HbA1C to the severity of diabetic retinopathy. She reviewed medical records for more than 400 patients, extracting information and building a database. Preliminary results indicated that her patient population had more severe diabetic retinopathy and higher average HbA1C levels when compared to data from Europe and the US. She will continue this study with more detailed data quantification and analysis.
Lorien Menhennett
Location: Naggalama, Uganda
Organization: St. Francis Naggalama Hospital
Lorien’s summer research focused on health care delay in rural Uganda. Her specific objectives were to understand why sick, elderly patients do not seek medical care and to determine differences between patient-perceived and medical worker-perceived barriers to healthcare. She conducted interviews with patients, doctors, nurses, and the local palliative care nursing team. With the support of her WCM mentor, Dr. Randi Diamond, Lorien plans to conduct a qualitative data analysis and continue this work as a part of her AOC project.
Pallavi Ana Mishra
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Pallavi worked as a research assistant under the guidance of WCM’s Dr. Jennifer Downs at Weill Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza, Tanzania. Her research focused on the association between schistosomiasis infection, HIV transmission and viral load in women. Pallavi’s role was to assist with the registration of subjects and collection of blood samples. She compiled survey data and lab results, and will continue to be involved in the analysis. In addition, Pallavi rotated through various departments alongside Tanzanian medical students. Pallavi developed clinical skills, coordinated a complex research study and learned about the practice of medicine in a resource-poor setting.
Philip O’Donnell
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Philip spent his summer working at Weill Bugando Medical Center, under the guidance of his host mentor, Dr. Maria Santos. In additional to clinical duties, Philip worked on two primary projects. The first was a prospective study looking at the outcomes of severe traumatic brain injuries to identify shortcomings in the care process and potential areas of improvement. The second project was a prospective study that looked at the outcomes of pediatric hydrocephalus in the first year of life. Philip’s primary responsibility for both projects was data collection and data entry. He also performed physical exams and numerous procedures under the guidance of both Weill Cornell doctors and local doctors.
Claire Isabelle Verret
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Regional Dermatology Training Center
Claire spent two months at the Regional Dermatology Training Center in Moshi, Tanzania under the guidance of Dr. Stacey Langwick and Dr. Daudi Mavura. She evaluated the impact of the Albino Outreach Project on the quality of life of persons with albinism living in Tanzania. Her responsibilities included creating a database for patient information, compiling data summaries, interviewing project managers and consultants to find patterns and key themes, and comparing the information with other similar outreach programs. Claire was able to conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses and learn more about the research process
Summer 2015
Eugene Carragee
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
During his time in Moshi, Eugene studied hypertension management and cardiovascular disease risk at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. He conducted a study to document the prevalence of hypertensive patients admitted to the Department of Medicine, and compare the treatment of this patient population to the guidelines in the World Health Organization (WHO) Protocol for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management for Low- and Medium-Resource Settings. He collected data from over one hundred patients who were admitted to the ward and with whom he came in contact during rounds
Paul McClelland
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
During his two months at the Bugando Medical Center, Paul participated in rotations across five departments. Under the mentorship of Dr. Roger Hartl and Dr. Luke Smart, Paul helped conduct research project that assessed the epidemiology and management of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The objective was to describe the epidemiology and treatments available and determine predictors of mortality and identify areas for future improvement. Paul helped collect, digitize, and analyze data from a two-year prospective study of TBI-related admissions and outcomes, as well as write a draft of a paper designed to consolidate the data and present it for publication.
Emily Nash
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Emily spent eight weeks in Mwanza, Tanzania at Bugando Medical Center. Along with clinical observation, her experience was focused on a research project in the outpatient HIV clinic under the guidance of Dr. Robert Peck. The primary objective of this project was to compare ten-year and lifetime cardiovascular risk scores between three study groups: HIV-infected adults not yet on ART, HIV-infected adults on ART, and HIV-negative controls. Emily’s main responsibilities included analyzing the data and writing a manuscript. The study concluded that the lifetime cardiovascular risk was significantly higher among HIV-infected adults on ART compared to HIV-negative controls.
Cecilia Nicol
Location: Mwanza, Tanzania
Organization: Weill Bugando Medical Center
Cecilia spent eight weeks at Weill Bugando under the guidance of Dr. Robert Peck and Dr. Luke Smart. She focused on a project within the Ophthalmology department, creating a tele-medicine system to detect ophthalmic disease in patients with chronic illness and to train medical personnel in the use of the system. She used a nonmydriatic camera to take photographs of inpatients and outpatients visiting the various chronic disease clinics and developed a web-based system using Amazon Cloud and Google forms through which photographs were uploaded in Mwanza and then viewed and interpreted in New York
Stephanie Sutter
Location: Moshi, Tanzania
Organization: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center
Stephanie spent six weeks at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, attending ward rounds in Obstetrics and Gynecology and working on her research project which focused on quality improvement. The purpose of the project was to determine the rates of hypertensive disorders among women who received antenatal and delivery care at KCMC, as well as the treatment decisions and outcomes of those patients. She looked at the frequency of measuring early indicators on admittance sheets and identified possible interventions that would increase the likelihood of early detection of maternal hypertensive disorders.