Endocrinology Fellowship Program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

This abstract summarizes the Endocrinology Fellowship Program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES IN ESTABLISHING A COLLABORATIVE ENDOCRINOLOGY & DIABETES FELLOWSHIP TRANING PROGRAM IN ETHIOPIA Elias S. Siraj, Ahmed Reja, Tedla Kebede Background: Chronic medical conditions such as diabetes are on the rise in Africa posing a challenge to the health care system. On the other side, more medical schools are being opened graduating more medical doctors. Ethiopia, with a population of 90 million, is an example of this trend. The number of medical schools has expanded from 3 to 25 within 20 years, with anticipated > 10 fold increase in the number of graduates. Coupled with the rapid economic growth, these factors are creating a demand for specialist physicians. Experiences & Challenges: Addis Ababa University (AAU) started an Endocrine Fellowship training program in 2012 in collaboration with external supporters from North America (NA) and Europe, with an annual intake of 2 fellows. Some support was expected to come from external supporters in the areas of educational materials, short term trips of external supporters to Ethiopia, travels of the fellows to NA or Europe to get some exposures, and attracting funds for collaborative projects. Since the start of the program (about 1½ years), despite the suboptimal settings, the local faculty were able to achieve a lot in terms of teaching and running the program. About 7 external supporters made 8 trips to teach the fellows. One of the fellows spent weeks at a US Endocrine Fellowship program and the 2 nd fellow is expected to do the same soon. Despite some shortcomings of the program, the fellows have turned out to be capable and knowledgeable and are on their way to become independent Endocrinologists. Some of the challenges observed include: - There are only 3 Endocrinologists on site who carry lots of other duties limiting their available time to train the fellows. - Obtaining funds to arrange for the fellows to travel to NA and Europe was not easy. - The sustainability of the program over the long term is being challenged as the program could not get funded candidates during the 2 nd year. We feel that this is not due to lack of interested candidates, but rather due to inadequate coordination mechanisms at a national level, between AAU and the various medical schools to properly match the demand and supply. Conclusion: Collaborative programs can be a good way to jumpstart a specialist training program in a resource poor country but long term sustainability will need incorporation of those efforts into the existing plans of the country in line with the country’s emerging priorities as well as ongoing expansion of medical services and medical education.