About the Program

This program supports 24 mid-career physicians from African countries to travel to Stanford for a six-week period of time, gaining a specific skill set identified by the African scholars as a need to improve health outcomes at their academic institutions. Physicians will then return to their home countries to conduct a year-long quality improvement project focused on the skill set they identified. This inaugural program is led by the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, in partnership with the Stanford Center for Medical Education, and funded by an independent educational grant from Pfizer.

Meet the 2025 SASH scholars here.

Overview

Stanford will host a total of 24 scholars across four cohorts in 2025. Each fellowship consists of two phases: The first at Stanford; the second in the country of their home institution.

Phase 1

Each cohort will begin their fellowship with six weeks at Stanford, where they will be appointed as Visiting Instructors. The program will be tailored to their interests and implementation project topics.

Scholars will observe in clinical settings at Stanford hospitals and clinics and engage in other learning activities, including meeting with Stanford experts and participating in lectures and simulation activities where appropriate.

Each scholar will have a Stanford Faculty mentor, who will advise and train them. To facilitate shared learning, scholars will have the opportunity to earn Continuing Medical Education credit, give guest lectures and present to the Stanford community.

The scholar’s time at Stanford will foster quality improvement for their home institution, including but not limited to subspecialty knowledge, treatment and management of complex cases, and/or advanced medical technology. They will also observe different approaches to care, health systems management, and medical education, all designed to enhance the identified skillset needed at their home institution.

Phase 2

After training at Stanford, scholars will return to their academic institutions with a grant of up to $50,000 from Pfizer to implement their individual proposed project over the next 12-months. They will engage in virtual meetings with the SASH team, SASH’s Continuous Improvement Coach and their Stanford mentors for continued guidance and support. CIGH will hold a final convening in East Africa at the end of 2026 with all 24 scholars where they will present on the impact of their projects.

Eligibility

This program is open to licensed African physicians who are currently working as faculty at an African academic institution (university or teaching hospital). Eligible applicants should be engaged in clinical care, teaching and scholarly activity that advances clinical medicine. The program is open to physicians from all specialties and primary care who seek a specific skill to improve health outcomes at their institution. However, we will prioritize those from Sub-Saharan Africa interested in the fields of antimicrobial resistance, oncology, vaccine uptake, infectious and inflammatory diseases.

To be considered, applicants must meet all the following eligibility criteria:

Be in good standing within their institutions and demonstrate an ongoing commitment to improving health outcomes in their home countries.As projects will be implemented at scholars’ institutions, they should plan to remain employed there during both phases 1 and 2 of the program.
Be an African citizen* who is currently living, teaching and practicing clinically in an African country.
Be a board-certified medical doctor with one of the following degrees: MD, MBChB or MMed.
Be a mid-career physician, appointed as a faculty member for at least 3 and less than 15 years.
Have strong working proficiency in written and spoken English (as determined by the selection committee).

* This program is not open to United States-licensed Healthcare Professionals
*This program is only for physicians practicing in Africa and applicants may not reside, and their home institutions may not be located in a restricted market (includes the Crimean Peninsula, Cuba, the Donbass Region, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria). Applicants cannot be listed on any restricted persons and entities list maintained by the US, EU, UN or other relevant government bodies.

Recruitment Timeline and Application Details

Recruitment Update: Recruitment for all four cohorts is now complete. Thank you to everyone that applied for the SASH program. For updates on future recruitment cycles, please join our SASH listserv.

During the 2024-25 academic year, SASH Scholars will spend six weeks at Stanford , to be followed by 12-months of project implementation at scholars’ home institutions.

The recruitment process for this program is three steps:

Eligibility screening application
More extensive application (by invite only), with questions about applicants’ proposed quality improvement project and SASH learning objectives. At this stage, candidates will have already been paired with a Stanford Faculty Mentor, who will submit a letter of support for the applicant. Scholars will also be asked to submit a short video introducing themselves and their projects.
Virtual panel interview (by Zoom) with the SASH team and members of the SASH Faculty Review Committee.

SASH Stories: Video Features about SASH

Funding Details

The program includes/provides:

Visa costs
Living expenses while at Stanford during Phase 1, which include health insurance, accommodations, ground transport, US sim card, etc.
Living stipend for Phase 1
Travel to and from a San Francisco regional airport, economy class roundtrip airfare for the awardee only, and associated travel costs to Stanford for Phase 1
Up to $50,000 in grant funding from Pfizer provided directly to scholars’ academic institutions for phase 2 project implementation. These funds cannot be used to purchase capital equipment.*

* Capital equipment is defined as something that has resale value, i.e. something that has value and could be resold after the life cycle of the project. Examples of capital equipment include, but are not limited to: computers, iPhones, tablets, appliances, machinery, camera equipment, sensors, facilities construction, etc.