AMPATH Nepal Partnership Announced

AMPATH’s global health partnership continues to expand with the addition of AMPATH Nepal led by Dhulikhel Hospital and Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences with the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai representing the AMPATH Consortium of 15 academic health centers around the world.

The AMPATH (Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare) Global network builds partnerships between universities and academic health centers to strengthen health systems and tackle health disparities in low- and middle-income countries, train future global health leaders and foster healthcare innovations to improve health worldwide. The partnership began more than 30 years ago in Kenya and recently announced new partnerships in Tamale, Ghana, and Puebla, Mexico, built on the successful model.

Ram K. M. Shrestha, MD, executive director and founder of Dhulikhel Hospital, said, “We believe that this collaboration will open new horizons in global health that will touch and transform countless lives.”

The partners will work together to serve a population of approximately 2.2 million people in central Nepal. Key health priorities include cardiovascular disease, maternal and child health and mental health.

“The AMPATH Nepal partnership provides so many opportunities for reciprocal learning and information sharing,” said Adrian Gardner, MD, MPH, executive director of the AMPATH Consortium. “The team from Nepal has unique experiences and perspectives to share that will advance our vision for a global partnership to ensure health for all.”

The partners in Nepal and from the AMPATH Consortium will work together to develop subspecialty care at Dhulikhel Hospital, support the development of outreach centers and enhance data utilization for care delivery.

“Mount Sinai has been a part of the highly successful AMPATH Kenya partnership for many years, and we are proud to move forward with a similar collaborative effort in Nepal. Together, with our shared expertise and knowledge, we will work to improve health for our most vulnerable patients here in New York and with our partners in Nepal,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai, and president for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System.

As part of the AMPATH model, the new Nepal partnership will build a bidirectional exchange of faculty and trainees and create shared training and other educational opportunities. Building research capacity and embedding clinically relevant research into clinical departments to improve care for the population is another area of focus.

“We aim to build a sustainable health system together—one that reduces disparities, creates a model for how to deliver care that both prevents and treats disease, shapes tomorrow’s health leaders, generates critical research, and mutually strengthens our institutions,” said Rachel C. Vreeman, MD, MS, Chair of Global Health and Health System Design and Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Icahn Mount Sinai.