Key component of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with support from the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) began an applied epidemiology training component within the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI). MEPI was developed to expand and enhance medical education in sub-Saharan African countries that receive support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This mentored initiative includes pre-service and in-service training being developed collaboratively by CDC’s Division of Public Health Systems and Workforce Development (DPHSWD), Division of Global HIV/AIDS (DGHA), and Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) and implemented in Kenya and Zimbabwe. MEPI is designed to enhance critical public health competency gained within medical education and improve surveillance and response capacity at the district level by targeting medical students and recent medical graduates who are (or will be) charged with managing their country’s public health programs. To accomplish this goal, DPHSWD facilitates a partnership among the country’s Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), Ministry of Health (MOH), and the respective MEPI-partner medical school.

Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library collection