New Pediatric Ophthalmology Fellowship in Ghana

Faculty from the Kellogg Center for International Ophthalmology have partnered with medical educators in Ghana to establish a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship—the first such program of it’s kind in Ghana.

The need is great. Currently, four pediatric ophthalmologists and one pediatric-oriented general ophthalmologist serve the entire country—a physician-to-patient ratio of 1 to 1 million.

The origins of the program date back to 2015, when Ghanaian ophthalmologist Vera Adobea Essuman first visited Kellogg. Dr. Essuman was accompanying her husband, also a Ghanaian doctor, who “traveled to Ann Arbor for training in geriatrics at U-M. Here, Dr. Essuman, a faculty member of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (GCPS), observed clinical activity, training and research in pediatric ophthalmology.

Driven by Dr. Essuman and Kellogg colleagues Monte Del Monte, M.D., Jonathan Trobe, M.D., and Grace Wang, M.D., Ph.D., a partnership was formed to establish a formal pediatric ophthalmology fellowship in Ghana patterned after those in the U.S.

Work began in 2018 with an exploratory grant from Global REACH (Research, Education, And Collaboration in Health), a U-M Medical School program that pilots sustainable teaching and clinical interventions to reduce health disparities in developing countries.

Dr. Wang spearheaded the grant proposal. “Growing up in China, I experienced firsthand the effects of limited access to healthcare,” she says. “At Kellogg, I’m part of a team planting the seeds to improve eye care in this disadvantaged and deserving part of the world.”

The program is modeled after successful pediatric fellowships launched by Dr. Del Monte in China and India. It is offered through Ghana’s two teaching hospitals, where U-M has already established training and research collaborations in obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, emergency medicine, family medicine and otolaryngology. Dr. Essuman serves as fellowship director.

“The key to all of our international alliances has been designing programs that keep doctors caring for patients in their home countries for subspeciality training,” explains Dr. Del Monte. “Until now, ophthalmologists interested in specializing in pediatric care had to leave the region for formal fellowship training. Too many don’t return to their home countries.”

The first year of the two-year curriculum is spent training with local attending physicians and accessing educational materials and recorded lectures and grand rounds from Kellogg.

Year two is spent in pediatric rotations outside of Ghana, for example, with India’s Aravind Eye Care System, or in Nepal, where “hands on” surgical training is possible. The fellow will then spend 3 months at the Kellogg Eye Center on an International Council of Ophthalmology fellowship to observe how clinical and surgical care is performed here, before completing fellowship training.

The program launched in January 2020 with one fellow, Dr. Vera Beyuo, only to be paused within weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Beyuo restarted in 2021. A second fellow is expected to begin in 2022.

“I am excited to apply the excellent training I’m receiving to caring for Ghana’s youngest patients,” says Dr. Beyuo.