Reza Nassiri, director of the Institute for International Health and assistant dean in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Photo by Ann Cook. 

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EAST LANSING, Mich. — In an effort to boost medical research and enhance health care in foreign nations, Michigan State University has signed health agreements with colleges and teaching hospitals in South Africa and the Dominican Republic.

The global initiative, led by Reza Nassiri, the new director of MSU’s Institute of International Health, soon also will include agreements with countries such as Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, Uganda and India to provide training to doctors and medical and nursing students.

“MSU has the resources available to be a global leader in health and medicine,” Nassiri said. “By linking with foreign schools and hospitals, we not only benefit from amazing training opportunities for our physicians but also have access to more grants to spur research.”

The agreements, in conjunction with the medical mission program Nassiri seeks to expand, also will help provide MSU’s medical and nursing students a unique opportunity, he added.

“Our students will have the chance to see pathologies that are not common in America and be given a unique opportunity to develop cultural competency while brushing up their clinical skills,” he said. 

The agreements already in place are with South Africa’s East London Hospital Complex, which is made up of two teaching hospitals and several rural clinics, and the Santo Domingo HIV/AIDS Clinic in the Dominican Republic. That clinic serves as a reference center not only for the Dominican Republic but also for Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean.

Nassiri just returned from the Dominican, where he went with 16 College of Osteopathic Medicine students and two College of Human Medicine students on a medical mission trip. The group worked with local physicians in several Santo Domingo hospitals and clinics, and students also shadowed doctors in several rural clinics.

Expanding MSU’s global outreach in health and medicine is a top priority for Nassiri, who joined MSU in spring as director of the Institute for International Health and also as an assistant dean in the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

In addition to the global health agreements, Nassiri is developing an elective course focusing on poverty-related diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria that will include a trip to South Africa in August. He also is welcoming a pair of Italian physicians to MSU in June for a two-week training visit and a doctor from the Dominican for training with HIV/AIDS medications.

MSU’s Institute for International Health is a cross-college collaboration that facilitates faculty and student health research and academic interests in international health projects overseas. Participating units include Osteopathic Medicine, Human Medicine, Civil and Environmental Engineering, International Studies and Programs, Natural Science, Social Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.

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Michigan State University has been advancing knowledge and transforming lives through innovative teaching, research and outreach for more than 150 years. MSU is known internationally as a major public university with global reach and extraordinary impact. Its 17 degree-granting colleges attract scholars worldwide who are interested in combining education with practical problem solving.