MGB AMC Department of Psychiatry fosters innovative collaborations with the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda
The MGB AMC Department of Psychiatry provides teaching support to growing training programs in Psychiatry at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda, including through the MGH Pierce Division. This has included support to second year medical students in neuroscience and psychiatry, third-year medical students in a 3-month clinical clerkship in psychiatry, and emerging support in development of a new psychiatry residency training program at UGHE that will open in 2027. This is done in close collaboration with Rwandan colleagues who lead the initiatives, and who also direct a model care delivery system that holds promise to advance access to mental health care to other parts of the world. In an article entitled “What America can learn from Rwanda to solve its mental health crisis”, this model has been cited by National Geographic as one that could be replicated in the US.
Hyperlink: “What America can learn from Rwanda to solve its mental health crisis”
UGHE was founded in 2015 in Kigali, Rwanda, by the international health care delivery organization Partners In Health (PIH), with the opening of the main campus in the northern town of Butaro in 2019. UGHE currently offers a 1-year Masters in Global Health Delivery (MGHD), a 6.5-year dual medical degree (MBBS/MGHD), as well as other academic programs. In 2024 the Times Higher Education ranked UGHE the #4 university in sub-Saharan Africa (and the University of Rwanda #6). The inauguration of a 10-year Paul Farmer Collaborative between Harvard Medical School (HMS) and UGHE in Rwanda in 2023 has coincided with the ambition of UGHE to now develop a world class academic mental health program that bridges clinical training, research and leadership education in global mental health delivery and equity.
Hyperlink: UGHE Academic Programs
Hyperlink: Times Higher Education
Hyperlink: Paul Farmer Collaborative
At the same time, within the rural district surrounding UGHE, PIH, in collaboration with the Rwanda Ministry of Health, has over the past fifteen years initiated and expanded a successful community-based model of mental health care delivery in the public sector. PIH has invested in the decentralization of mental health care services with care now available from the district hospital to the health center and community levels. This offers a platform for learning in community-based mental health that supplements a classic training in clinical psychiatry, providing an opportunity for trainees to learn both a clinical and public health approach to mental health service delivery. Since 2012, members of the MGB AMC Department of Psychiatry (Dr. Giuseppe Raviola at MGH, and Dr. Stephanie Smith at Brigham & Women’s Hospital) have been engaged in teams with Rwandan colleagues in developing this decentralized model of mental health care delivery in rural areas. The program, called Mentoring and Enhanced Supervision at Health Centers mental health program (MESH-MH), is a multifaceted implementation program that strengthens decentralized primary health care services at rural health centers through a combination of didactic training, ongoing clinical mentorship, and quality improvement activities. The Rwandan-led mental health team has developed an electronic medical record system (EMR) to better track patients’ data and monitor key quality improvement measures and have engaged in multiple measurement-based quality improvement efforts within the service delivery framework, including a focus on psychotherapy delivery and follow-up in rural areas, and management of psychiatric emergencies.
There are 13 Rwandan psychiatrists presently working in the country. Five psychiatrists work at the national Caraes Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Kigali. Over the course of the past five years, in developing a Clinical Clerkship in Psychiatry at UGHE for third-year medical students, there has been a genuine collaboration between UGHE and Ndera Hospital, its leadership, its faculty, and its staff. There is additional enthusiasm to deepen collaborations in the coming years, with MGB psychiatrists offering their time and expertise.
The UGHE Clinical Clerkship in Psychiatry, based on the 2024 Clerkship Directors Report, and now entering its third year in 2025, has been a successful endeavor and a strong learning experience for students. Key areas of focus included the biopsychosocial model, diagnostic formulations, and the management of psychiatric disorders such as mood disorders, anxiety, psychosis, and substance use. The inclusion of psychiatric emergencies and safety planning ensured students were prepared for clinical scenarios. The didactic component, featuring flipped classroom sessions and interactive lectures, has been found by students to be well-structured. Didactic sessions have been improved incorporate more case-based learning and teaching. This has been effective in showing the importance of patient-centered care and applying global topics in psychiatry to the Rwandan context. Topics like trauma-informed care, child and adolescent psychiatry, and neurodevelopmental disorders have been considered particularly impactful by students. The 12 visiting faculty who have staffed the UGHE medical student clerkship in Psychiatry, a number from MGB, offer a solid foundation for future teaching and faculty development. Pierce Division Director Dr. Giuseppe (Bepi) Raviola notes, “The medical students at UGHE are phenomenal. They also relish the opportunity and the challenge of learning psychiatry. Overall, developing the rotation and facilitating the interaction of brilliant students with engaged faculty has been a dream realized for many of us.”
MGH faculty engaged in 2025-26 include: Dr. Rahel Bosson, MGH/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Associate Training Director, who works across McLean Hospital and MGH and has led integration of global mental health engagements within the MGH/McLean residency program through the development of a new Community and Global Psychiatry Track; Dr. Zeina Chemali, Vice Chair for Education at Cambridge Health Alliance and previous Director of the Neuropsychiatry Clinics and Training in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at MGH; Dr. Rick Wolthusen of McLean Hospital, staff psychiatrist on the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program at McLean Hospital who has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, including in Kenya and Ghana; Dr. David Kroll, Associate Vice Chair of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Director of Ambulatory Psychiatry Initiatives at MGB; Dr. Alex Mosckicki, staff psychiatrist on the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program at McLean Hospital; Dr. Ganaelle Joseph Senatus, staff psychiatrist at McLean Hospital; and Dr. Funso Oladunjoye, fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at MGH/McLean Hospital.
In August 2025 Dr. Wolthusen traveled to Rwanda to teach the psychiatric component of the UGHE neuroscience course for second-year students. US faculty for the third-year medical student clerkship will travel to Rwanda in 2-week blocks between October 2025 to January 2026. They will work side by side with Rwandan and African psychiatrists based in Rwanda as well.
Over the coming year, a new Mass General Brigham Collaborative in Global MH Delivery, through the MGH/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency, the Chester M. Pierce Division of Global Psychiatry at MGH, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Program in GMH Equity, as well as collaboration with McLean Hospital, will help to convene faculty around the bi-directional teaching and mentorship of residents and medical students in Psychiatry. Taken together, a strong foundation for faculty collaboration and exchange exists to build support for capacity building within a new residency program at UGHE, but other programs as well, such as a the residency at Sierra Leone Psychiatric Teaching Hospital, the oldest psychiatric hospital in sub-Saharan Africa