Helen Loeser (4th from the left) and team. Photo by Mwanzo Millinga

Dr. Loeser, the School of Medicine's Associate Dean of Curricular Affairs, recently headed a team of educators visiting Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

What was the core objective of your visit?

Our goal was to help them develop ways to teach and make assessments more effectively. Our trip was just one component of a larger project led by UCSF Global Health Sciences. We are looking at our partnership with Muhimbili University as a model of how to work collaboratively with a university to help build their capacity to improve care, health education, research, and health policy.

What are some of the challenges the MUCHS faculty faces?

One great challenge for them is that their government has mandated an increase in enrollment in students, while the faculty is shrinking at the same time, and they have very limited resources to teach a growing number of students.

The students themselves face tremendous challenges in terms of access to resources. They don't have much in the way of textbooks. They do have a reasonable number of computer stations, but not all students are on an even level with their technology skills, as it is not part of the curriculum. One idea that arose during our visit was to create a peer-taught course to ensure everybody starts school with the capacity to access what is online.

What were some of the things that surprised you during the conference?

It was very rewarding to see how engaged their faculty were in the workshops we held. We ran 90% of the conference such that it required active participation. This was not a format familiar to them - they are very lecture-based - but it was great fun for them and for us, and it was exciting to see how many project ideas were generated in the various workshops.

What aspect of your mission did you think was the most helpful?

Ultimately, the single most important thing was the fact that their faculty came here first and that we subsequently went there, which created real relationships, face to face, and permitted tailoring of our conference workshops. I believe no real change can happen without strong person-to-person connections.

What are the main barriers to progress at MUCHS?

Structurally, there are some real challenges in their traditional approach to qualifications for faculty appointments. They are part of the University of Dar es Salaam, and acceptance requires an MD/PhD. Finding innovative ways to change this system will be a big challenge.

It was also clear that the very traditional relationship between faculty and students is a potential barrier on the path to embracing the kind of active engagement of learners that we take for granted.

How did you perceive the climate at the University for women?

At MUCHS, the senior faculty is still heavily male, but among the junior faculty, there is an increasing share of women. There is a public campaign in Tanzania to improve gender awareness and the status of women.

At the level of the medical education leadership, none of our delegation had any sense of discrimination; however, the female post doc we sent to teach biochemistry reported some frustration in establishing equal recognition and validity.

How do partnerships such as this one enrich our own campus?

These partnerships bring with them potential collaborations and exciting opportunities to engage in scholarship and development of potential, which is an important aspect of why most of us chose our professional paths. They give us the chance to meet special individuals we would not get to meet otherwise, and they provide opportunities to create meaningful education projects for trainees and students

We have one student at MUCHS right now, and there are plans for several student projects to work collaboratively with the faculty there to develop pieces of a new curriculum.

What are the next steps in this continuing project?

We are in the process of producing a joint report with MUCHS which will spell out the next set of steps, the short-term plans, and a longer-term vision for a regional Center of Excellence in health sciences at MUCHS.