The Indiana University (IU) Center for Global Health hosts guests from around the country and around the world for the AMPATH Global Gathering and affiliated meetings on October 7-8 in Indianapolis.
The gala reception and dinner on the evening of Saturday, October 8, is the weekend’s premier event. Nearly 500 guests from Kenya, Ghana, Mexico, Nepal, Sweden, Canada and across the U.S. are expected for the 5:30 p.m. reception at the Marriott Hotel. Tickets for the event are still available.
AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Health Care) began more than 30 years ago when four IU School of Medicine physicians formed a partnership with Moi University and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya. Members of IU’s faculty continue to live and work full-time in Kenya and IU School of Medicine and Moi University School of Medicine students and residents complete educational exchanges during their clinical rotations.
“For decades, our AMPATH Kenya tradition has been to gather in Indianapolis every few years to celebrate our successes, reconnect with our friends and colleagues and renew our commitment to improving the health of people in underserved communities,” said Adrian Gardner, MD, MPH, director of the IU Center for Global Health and executive director of the AMPATH Consortium.
“COVID pushed this gathering back a few years this time, but also gave us the opportunity to expand Hoosier Hospitality to even more partners,” he added. AMPATH Ghana and AMPATH México were officially launched earlier this year and AMPATH Nepal will officially join the global partnership network soon.
Leaders from AMPATH’s partnership in Kenya will host a series of working group and interest group meetings throughout the IUPUI campus on Friday, October 7. Groups led by IU School of Medicine faculty members include education, informatics, mental health, neurology, oncology and hematology, palliative care, public health and primary care, reproductive health, and surgery, critical care and anesthesia.
Friday afternoon, Dr. Tim Evans, former senior director of Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank and now director and associate dean of the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University, will lead a keynote presentation and discussion about Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Representatives from the 15 universities in North America and Europe that are now part of the AMPATH Consortium and representatives from all four AMPATH Global host sites will collaborate and discuss strategies for implementing UHC.
On Saturday morning, the group will discuss updates related to the expanding AMPATH Global partnership and have opportunities to learn more about the new partners from Mexico, Ghana and Nepal. IU serves as the secretariat for the AMPATH Global network providing administrative and regulatory support service, promoting and facilitating the exchange of ideas, coordinating educational exchanges and leading monitoring and evaluation.
Former IU School of Medicine students who were selected as Slemenda Scholars will gather for a reunion reception prior to the gala on Saturday afternoon.
AMPATH Global Gathering sponsors are Abbott, Pfizer, Takeda, Eli Lilly, IU Health and One America Foundation.
