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Who we are

Africa Partners Medical (APM) is a group of American and African doctors, nurses and other health care professionals committed to improving medical care in Africa. APM does so by sponsoring educational conferences in Africa and establishing long-term partnerships with indigenous African health care personnel. The faculty of Africa Partners Medical includes physicians and nurses from Mayo Clinic, Scott and White Clinic, National Institutes of Health, Cleveland Clinic, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, among others, who volunteer their time. Since 2000, APM has brought an annual medical education program to a total of more than 1200 physicians, residents, nurses and emergency medical technicians in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Mali.

A particular focus of Africa Partners Medical activities is improving awareness of the high rates of viral hepatitis and liver cancer in Africa and in immigrant African populations in the United States, such as the Somali immigrant population in Minnesota. We seek to help with efforts at prevention of hepatitis infection, identification of those with viral infection who are at risk for development of liver cancer, and improvements in diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis and liver cancer in African and minority and immigrant African populations in the United States. In pursuit of these goals we have partnered with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the World Gastroenterology Organization, and the American Gastroenterological Association to develop a West African Network for Research in Digestive and Liver Diseases. Africa Partners Medical volunteers are also developing relationships with immigrant African populations in Minnesota, particularly the Somali immigrant population, to improve prevention, detection and treatment of liver disease and liver cancer in this population.

Why we go

• Health care needs in Africa are staggering and medical care is often sub-standard.
• The prevalence of HIV and other infectious and preventable diseases takes its toll in the lives of thousands each year, many of whom are family wage earners in the most productive years of their lives.
• Most West African nations currently have no formal mechanism to keep medical personnel in academic and private settings current with new information.

These realities compel us as medical professionals, humanitarians and global citizens to empower African medical personnel to improve the health care of their people. Providing quality health care will help prevent needless death.