The inaugural Medical Education Africa Conference in Kigali was symbolically concluded on Tuesday evening
African universities must urgently reform how they train healthcare workers to address the continent’s growing medical challenges, experts urged at the inaugural Medical Education Africa Conference in Kigali.
The two-day event, which concluded on Tuesday, highlighted the pressing need to move away from outdated, colonial-era training models and adopt innovative, African-led approaches to medical education that can better serve the continent’s 1.5 billion people.
Held from March 24-25, the conference aimed to rethink and reimagine the future of medical education and healthcare in Africa. The continent faces a shortage of medical professionals, widespread brain drain, rising disease burdens, limited healthcare access, and declining financial support.
Professor Dr. Senait Fisseha, in her closing keynote speech, emphasized that while these challenges are significant, Africa has a choice: remain hindered by them or use them as a catalyst for transformation by developing homegrown solutions.
At the core of this transformation is how Africa educates and trains its health workers, Fisseha criticized the current system, which is rooted in colonial-era models that limit scalability and innovation. She called for a shift toward African-driven models that leverage technology, innovation, and research to address the continent’s healthcare challenges.
“This is the time to reimagine medical education for Africa’s future. The current model is restrictive, and we must think beyond it. We need to scale up and train health workers at the speed and scale this continent requires,” Fisseha said.
Professor Dr. Senait Fisseha, an Ethiopian- Rwanda Obstetrician and Gynecologist specialist who has played a key role in revolutionizing healthcare on the continent
Rethinking Medical Education: African Models Over Global Standards:
Fisseha challenged Africa to move away from traditional World Health Organization (WHO) benchmarks, which measure disease burden against the number of available medics—an approach that would take over 160 years to close the healthcare gap. Instead, she highlighted Rwanda’s 4-by-4 model, which aims to quadruple the number of medics within four years as an example of an African-driven solution.
Pan-African Health Education & Breaking Colonial Chains:
Recognizing that African countries currently have fragmented medical education systems, Fisseha called for a Pan-African collaboration where nations adopt a unified educational model aligned with national priorities.
“The choice is ours: we can remain fragmented and rely on outdated systems, or we can build a bold, integrated, future-ready medical education system that truly serves our people,” she said.
To initiate this change, she announced that Rwanda will launch the Africa Health Scientific University (AHSU) at King Faisal Hospital. This Pan-African institution will train top-tier medical professionals from across the continent, eliminating the need for African students to seek better training overseas.
Fisseha criticized Africa’s reliance on foreign training programs, which have led to fragmented, donor-driven education models that fail to align with Africa’s health priorities.
“It is time to take ownership of our medical education by developing a shared Pan-African curriculum grounded in our reality. Our system must focus on the diseases and health challenges we face, fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and lifelong learning,” she emphasized.
Participants came from over 160 medical schools from all over Africa and beyond
She pointed to Rwanda’s collaborative approach, which integrates medical education with national health priorities, as a model for bridging gaps between **policy, medical schools, and research institutions.
“We need stronger collaboration between academia, research, and policy to ensure graduates are system-ready from day one. Training must include exposure to policy, health financing, and systems management, preparing graduates to lead in both public and private healthcare settings,” she added.
Prioritizing Prevention Over Treatment:
Fisseha stressed the need for a public health-focused curriculum that integrates disease prevention and health promotion rather than solely treating illnesses. She called for stronger cooperation between medical schools, research institutions, and health ministries to ensure education aligns with national priorities and produces well-prepared graduates.
Revolutionizing African Medical Education:
Supporting this perspective, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Yvan Butera, urged African medical schools to think beyond traditional textbook guidelines and explore innovative approaches to addressing major health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease—even in the absence of full capacity.
Butera cited Rwanda’s success in launching a kidney transplant program through a fellowship initiative. By partnering with external experts, Rwanda has conducted 44 transplants since 2023, significantly reducing the cost of sending patients abroad for treatment.
Rwanda’s Minister of State for Health, Dr. Yvan Butera explains how a simple off-the-books decision to start specialized fellowships changed the way medical education can respond to national priorities in any country
Dr. Thomas G. Weiser, an Associate Professor at Stanford School of Medicine, urged Africa to replace its outdated medical education system with innovative, forward-thinking approaches.
“The problem with the legacy system is that while it works, it is extremely slow and laborious. We need to rethink how we train health workers to accelerate learning and impact,” Weiser said.
Given that it currently takes 15 years to train a surgeon, organizations like Lifebox, which focuses on improving surgical safety, are advocating for shorter, high-quality training programs for nurses and mid-level providers.
Dr. Nobhojit Roy (left) explains to local journalists, the importance of short surgery training courses as a model to reduce the medics shortage and cost of training full surgeons
Dr. Nobhojit Roy, Chair of the Centre for Leadership in Global Health Equity at UGHE, emphasized that Africa’s solution must involve multi-level, fast-track training.
“We will never have enough doctors or surgeons. Africa needs an approach that includes rapid, skill-based training rather than 20-year-long educational pathways,” Roy said.
With 144,000 healthcare providers trained globally, Lifebox is supporting nurses in performing simple surgeries. This in-service training model, if widely adopted, could significantly reduce surgical costs and close human resource gaps.
“The first cohort of surgical nurses has already been trained in safe surgery leadership, hygiene, and sterilization. We plan to expand this to other countries based on health ministries’ requests,” Roy added.
Senait Bitew (in orange) explains to Health Minister Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana how they plan to rollout the surgical nurses training program in Rwanda
Lifebox’s Chief Program Officer, Senait Bitew, explained that their research-based nine-month surgical nurse training program is already improving surgical safety in Rwanda.
“We collect data and intervene based on identified gaps in sterilization, equipment maintenance, and adherence to safety checklists. For example, surgical site infections have dropped by 35%, and compliance could push this reduction to 46%,” Bitew said.
She expressed optimism about scaling the program across Rwanda and beyond to enhance medical training and improve patient outcomes across Africa.
Lifebox collaborates with Rwanda’s ministry of health to intervene in areas where government policy needs support
To start acting on some of the above recommendations, the conference inaugurated the first Consortium of Medical Schools -Africa (CMS-A) committee (made up of School Deans), who will coordinate Africa’s agenda to transform medical education and collaboration, was also elected and presented to leading medical educators, leaders, students, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and partners at the conference.
The Consortium of Medical Schools -Africa (CMS-A) committee
Dr. Yvan Butera (right) and Professor Dr. Senait Fisseha chat a way forward towards changing Africa’s current medical education system to respond to patients’ and national needs
