New Partnership Expands International Residency Placements
In February 2025, Kwame Akyeampong, M.D., a family medicine resident physician, completed a month-long rotation in the Kingdom of Eswatini as part of the MedStar Health-Georgetown University Global Health Equity Track. This rotation represents the start of a new partnership between MedStar-Georgetown Graduate Medical Education and the Georgetown University Global Health Institute (GUGHI), designed to connect residents with the university’s broader global health programs.
The Global Health Equity Track prepares resident physicians across all specialties to understand the factors shaping global health equity and to collaborate with populations to improve health care outcomes. Residents engage in interdisciplinary didactics with high-level international speakers, advocacy initiatives such as Capitol Hill Advocacy Day, global health elective rotations, and faculty-guided capstone projects that are presented at the MedStar-Georgetown Research & Education Symposium.
The Georgetown University Center for Global Health Practice and Impact (CGHPI) Eswatini served as the initiative’s pilot site, with plans to expand to other sites in future years. The partnership not only provides unique experiential learning opportunities for residents but also brings direct benefits to the programs and communities where the university is involved.
Additionally, it opens scope for residents and faculty within MedStar-Georgetown Graduate Medical Education to collaborate in more joint projects with Georgetown University faculty and students from across the university.
Currently, residents have the opportunity to complete rotations at several locations, including an academic hospital at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, a community and academic hospital at CES University in Colombia, a rural community hospital at AIC Litein Hospital in Kenya, and a public health placement at the Mann Deshi Foundation in India.
On the Ground
Dr. Akyeampong observed the progress to end the HIV epidemic firsthand in Mbabane, a community with a HIV prevalence of 27%. During his rotation, Dr. Akyeampong worked on designing an integrated primary health care site that could potentially be replicated across the country. To accomplish this, he met with health care professionals, including leaders from the Ministry of Health; local community leaders; and educators from the University of Eswatini.
This collaborative approach ensures that the country’s local leaders guide the development process, with MedStar-Georgetown offering technical assistance and support under their direction.
“As someone training to be a clinician, it is important that a residency program offers rigorous training with exposure to complex cases. This track provided exactly that,” Dr. Akyeampong shared. His long-term goal to contributing to health care infrastructure development in low- and middle-income countries in Africa made this rotation particularly meaningful.
Collaborative Efforts to Strengthen Health Care Infrastructure
Katherine Stolarz, D.O., the associate director of global health at MedStar-Georgetown Graduate Medical Education and an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Department of Family Medicine, who traveled with Dr. Akyeampong to establish this new partnership, noted that CGHPI Eswatini’s emphasis on sustainable health care infrastructure development is a critical addition to the Global Health Equity Track.
“This partnership with the GUGHI extends our reach for collaborations to undergraduate and medical students, as well as Georgetown faculty stationed at CGHPI international sites. It is important for learners at all levels to see that global health is about working together across borders to develop sustainable health care solutions.”
Such an approach is why Dr. Stolarz describes the Global Health Equity Track as both longitudinal, ensuring sustained engagement over time, and bidirectional, meaning that MedStar-Georgetown Graduate Medical Education regularly receives learners from its international partners.
Improving HIV Care and Treatment
In-country director for CGHPI Eswatini Samson Haumba, D.Litt. and D.Phil., M.Med., MPH, supported Drs. Akyeampong and Stolarz throughout the rotation. He manages CGHPI Eswatini’s operations in the Manzini and Lubombo regions, where 88 health facilities provide clinical services, and leads community engagement efforts in 29 constituencies across the country.
“The pilot site marks an exciting beginning for future global health partnerships. We look forward to expanding these efforts and using this model to improve health care infrastructure in other regions of Eswatini.”
Looking Ahead
Dr. Stolarz hopes to build on this partnership by identifying future track residents who can collect data at the new primary health care site to be presented to the Eswatini Ministry of Health. Dr. Akyeampong plans to remain involved in the Eswatini project beyond his residency graduation. GUGHI and MedStar-Georgetown will build on this pilot experience to establish similar partnerships in other countries.
To learn more about the MedStar-Georgetown Graduate Medical Education’s Global Health Equity Track, please visit the track page.