Cooper University Health Care Medical Team Returns to Tanzania to Provide Medical Education

For the third consecutive year, a team of physicians from Cooper University Health Care traveled to Tanzania at the end of September to provide advanced medical education in partnership with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences and Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam. Muhimbili National Hospital, the largest hospital in Tanzania, houses 1,500 beds and serves a population of more than 7 million. Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, a 170-bed facility, is one of six Aga Khan hospital locations in the world. Tanzania, the most populous country in East Africa bordering the Indian Ocean, has a population exceeding 60 million.

As East Africa's health care infrastructure continues to improve, the demand for medical knowledge exchange and training in advanced intensive care practices has grown significantly.

"It has been humbling to work alongside our Tanzanian colleagues and witness the remarkable advancements in their practices over the past three years. Our multi-year partnership has clearly improved patient care in East Africa. I'm especially grateful to our critical care faculty, who have led monthly webinars and dedicated their weekends this summer to virtually teach the Fundamentals of Critical Care Support (FCCS)," said Nitin K. Puri, MD, head of the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Cooper, who spearheaded the project.

The recent visit marked the first completion phase of Cooper Critical Care's three-year educational project, culminating in the launch of AFRI(Crit), Tanzania's first-ever dedicated advanced critical care training course. Equipped with these new skills, Tanzanian physicians are now prepared to teach FCCS across health care organizations nationwide, ensuring their teams have the tools to manage critically ill patients during the crucial first six hours of care.

Over four days, members of the Cooper Critical Care, Neurocritical Care, and Emergency Medicine teams, along with faculty from Geisinger, Inspira Health, George Washington University Hospital, Kaiser Health, Springfield Clinic, and Morehouse School of Medicine, provided hands-on training and continuing medical education. The Cooper Critical Care team, in conjunction with Tanzanian physician Dr. Sibtain Moledina, obtained grant funding from Edwards Lifesciences in collaboration with the Society of Critical Care Medicine to provide the training free of cost to the participants.

"We're deeply committed to expanding medical knowledge across borders. By equipping international physicians with essential critical care skills, we're raising the global standard of care and improving patient outcomes everywhere," said Lindsey Glaspey, DO, a member of Cooper Critical Care and an active participant in the global education initiative from its start.

Joining Drs. Puri and Glaspey were Cooper physicians Sharad Patel, MD; Jason Bartock, MD; Brendan Gill, MD; Fred Rincon, MD; and Joshua Rempell, MD, whose combined expertise contributed to a successful and impactful program.

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