By Bill Frist

It’s been many years since my first trip to Africa, but each trip changes me. I already know this trip will be no different. Tracy and I are here for two-weeks this time: Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya. The trip will bring together work from Hope Through Healing Hands (global community health) and The Nature Conservancy (intersection nature and health) in conjunction with Pathfinder International (global women’s health). Since 2004, Hope Through Healing Hands has invested over $2.2 million in direct funding to Africa and has sent over 60 Frist Global Health Leaders to African nations including Kenya, South Africa, and Tanzania for medical service and training.
By Jenny Eaton Dyer, PhD

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at the National Association of Evangelicals Christian Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

The conference was led by Galen Carey, Vice President of Government Relations, and on the day I spoke, it was in the grand marble Kennedy Caucus room in the Russell Building on Capitol Hill.
By Jon Niconchuk
Since its inception over a century ago, AIC Kijabe Hospital has transformed into a national (and even international) center of clinical excellence. And yet the mission of the hospital does not end with clinical excellence alone. As the institution has matured, its goals have expanded beyond care delivery to care systems development and medical education. Over the course of our time here we have worked alongside medicine residents, obstetric residents, general surgery residents, neurosurgery residents, plastic surgery residents, and anesthesia residents and fellows from not only Kenya, but all of Africa (including Cameroon, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Rwanda just to name a few) – training at Kijabe and planning to return to either their county or country equipped to provide high quality care.
By Tara Lane
I am finishing up my first week rotating at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. I have been participating on the ID consult service, and it is amazing how much I have learned over the past four days. The ID team has been very welcoming, and I am grateful for their teaching and patience, especially as I learn a new system.
By Monica Polcz
As I reflect during my final days in Kijabe, I realize that this experience has both solidified my confidence in what I know and also highlighted areas that I am continuing to learn. On my first day in clinic, between 5 clinic rooms, we saw 150 patients. The variation in pathology extended the entire breadth of general surgery, most of which I had seen before.
By Jon Niconchuk
Jambo from Kenya! After barely escaping a rare Nashville snow storm and back to back 8 hour flights, we arrived safely in Nairobi (well, two of the three of us at least; our final companion missed a connection and made it the next morning.) Despite having been here once before, the drive down the hill into Kijabe was just as breathtaking. This idyllic oasis, this “place of the wind” nestled on the mountainside overlooking the ever-widening Great Rift Valley, remains as aesthetically beautiful as ever. With our comfortable guest house and nightly dinners waiting in the fridge, it is easy to lose sight of the reality of ever-present scarcity that exists all around. Yet as familiar faces welcomed me back to the operating theaters on Monday morning, I was reminded why AIC Kijabe Hospital – built from nothing over the past century – remains such a remarkable place. On our second morning in the ORs, one of the surgeons approached us hurriedly and said, “Dr. Jon, please go to the emergency ward, there has been a mass casualty.”
By Monica Polcz
A couple of months before I arrived in Kenya, my home institution switched their electronic medical record from Starpanel to Epic. To give a little background, I knew Starpanel. I was efficient at Starpanel. Starpanel was my friend, and Epic was an outsider. I found myself very clever in deeming the transition an "Epic" fail to anyone who would listen weeks before its rollout. Subsequently, on transition day, I felt unsurprised at the almost apocalyptic scene and hospital-wide confusion that ensued. It felt as if I didn't know how to do anything on this new system, but I found some satisfaction in blaming the yellow-vest wearing support team, or "yellow jackets" as we colloquially called them, as well as Epic itself for hindering the efficiency of patient care. It certainly wasn't my fault. I was already halfway through residency and I was efficient. I was confident!

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