Sharing the expertise of a world-class university with our partners in Botswana to build capacity and excellence in clinical care, education, and research.

  • A Botswana-UPenn Partnership faculty member examines a pediatric patient. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • A Penn medical student rotating in Mochudi observes a physician at work. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • Residents help staff a busy dermatology clinic at Princess Marina Hospital 2-3 days a week. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • The Botswana-UPenn Partnership is helping to write new clinical guidelines for patient care in Botswana. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • A group of health providers review how to spot TB in a chest x-ray. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • Healthcare workers attending a telemedicine training session. Cell phones are used to help make clinical diagnosis and obtain health information. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

  • BUP's tuberculosis contract tracing program aims to break the transmission cycle of TB in Botswana. Eric Rankae interviews a woman in Old Naledi whose sone was admitted to hospital with TB. Photo by Ryan Littman-Quinn

Botswana-UPenn Partnership

The Government of Botswana, the University of Botswana and the University of Pennsylvania formed
the Botswana-UPenn Partnership to build capacity in Botswana in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. UPenn is taking a broad interdisciplinary approach to train health-care personnel throughout Botswana in prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and its complications, to develop outstanding post-graduate training programs at the University of Botswana with an emphasis on Internal Medicine and its subspecialties, to offer experience in global health to Penn trainees, and to develop joint research programs that address issues relevant to the health and welfare of the citizens of Botswana.


Message from our Chief Executive

The University of Pennsylvania has developed productive and meaningful partnerships with the Botswana Ministry of Health and the University of Botswana. Our approach has been to endorse the tripartite mission of a medical school, which includes providing outstanding medical care while teaching about the diseases we are seeing and researching the issues that are most relevant to the country. The Botswana-UPenn Partnership has provided outstanding opportunities for Penn students and faculty to learn about health care management and disease presentations in resource constrained settings and to experience life in a wonderful yet very different culture. As we look to the future, we hope to expand our commitment beyond HIV, TB and cervical cancer to non-communicable diseases that are high priorities for the country. We look to apply new technologies like telemedicine to help deliver improved healthcare to people living in remote regions of Botswana.

I invite you to learn more about our work, make a donation to our program, or to contact us for questions or comments.


Harvey Friedman, MD
Director, Botswana-UPenn Partnership, Philadelphia

\Harvey Friedman           Doreen Ramogola Masire


Message from our Country Director

I am pleased to take this opportunity to welcome you the Botswana-UPenn Partnership (BUP) website.  It offers a great introduction to the work and the history of the University of Pennsylvania's role in Botswana.

The work of the BUP strives to improve the health of the people of Botswana on many levels. Our highly trained clinicians provide teaching and support expert care in clinics and hospitals across Botswana. We support national initiatives to improve care in HIV/AIDS and common co-morbidities, including active participation on technical working groups and treatment guideline development initiatives.  Our informatics specialists provide technical assistance to the development and implementation of telemedicine solutions to bridge the gap between specialists and remote patient populations, and tele-mentoring solutions to improve access to medical information resources. BUP researchers conduct cutting edge research to answer critical questions in the mission to improve the health of Batswana.  We're active partners of the University of Botswana, working with faculty to train the next generation of doctors and nurses, helping to build a long-term, sustainable solution to the shortage of health care workers in the country.

On behalf of our in country team of over 80 staff members, I would like to encourage you to find out more about the Partnerships' activities and how you can get involved.

Le amogetswe! (Welcome!)

Doreen Ramogola-Masire, MD
Country Director, Gaborone, Botswana


November Outreach Schedule

The November BUP internal medicine/HIV outreach schedule is available online here. The outreach lecture this month is on ''HIV & Cancer.'  You can sign up to receive email updates about the Outreach Schedule from Dr. Mike Reid by joining our the mailing list using the box to the left. If you missed any of the outreach lectures this year, all the lecture summaries (aka Tlaleletso) are available below.


New BUP Program Documents!

Read, save, forward, or print a PDFof the Botswana-UPenn Partnership Program Overview here.

We also have a new Frequently Asked Questions document.


Penn Student Summer Internships

Penn students intersted in a ten-week internship in Botswana during the summer of 2013, can learn more about the program, including past participant profiles, FAQ’s, and a link to the online application at the International Internship Program page. The application will become available in December and will be due February 1, 2013. We are working to finalize the placements at this time, but in general, we consider students (both undergrad and grad) who will be returning to campus next fall for work interships with various small companies, parastatal organzations, and NGOs in Botswana. Note: We do NOT offer any clinical or biomedical placements through this program.


BUP Stuff: New Online Shop

Hey! You can buy BUP-branded merchandise (hats! mug! shirts!) online here. Proceeds support our continued work.

BUP items for sale - hat, shirt, water bottle, etc.


BUP in the News and Publicity

  • The CDC Botswana Newsletter features some of the our work to fight cervical cancer in Botswana through our "See and Treat" program.
  • During the second week of September the BUP office at Penn was pleased to host the Permanent Secretary of Botswana’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Kolaatamo C.S. Malefho. Photos from that visit are available on our Flickr page
  • National Public Radio recently featured our Country Director, Doreen Ramogola-Masire in a story about vinegar swabs being used to help diagnose cervical cancer.

Tlaleletso

We recently launched a brief journal, edited by Dr. Mike Reid, that contains evidence-based and clinically relevant reviews for clinical faculty and staff in Botswana. Disseminated at all our BUP supported sites in country, the journal is named "Tlaleletso" (Setswana for 'Updates').

Issue 11, November 2012 - Update: HIV & Cancer

Issue 10, October 2012 - Update from the Botswana HIV Conference

Issue 9, September 2012 - Updated in HIV: HIV & Aging

Issue 8, August 2012 - Guidelines Update: Acute Kidney Injury

Issue 7, July 2012 - Updates in HIV: Tuberculosis Coinfection

Issue 6, June 2012 - Guidelines Update: Acute Poisoning

Issue 5, May 2012 - Update in HIV: Mental Health

Issue 4, April 2012 - Guidelines Update: Diabetes Mellitus Emergency Management

Issue 3, March 2012 - Issues in HIV Adherence

Issue 2, February 2012 - ACS Guideline Update

Issue 1, January 2012 - HIV Prevention Strategies

 

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