By Catherine Wu, Global Health Communications Assistant

From For Dr. Courage Uhunmwangho, rheumatology was “God’s calling.”

After completing his training in South Africa and returning to his home country of Nigeria, Uhunmwangho became one of seven rheumatologists in Nigeria as of 2015 (the country now has about 30). He is now one of two rheumatologists in North Central Nigeria, serving 23 million people as senior lecturer in the University of Jos College of Health Sciences and a consultant rheumatologist with the Jos University Teaching Hospital.

Recognizing the lack of specialists to meet the growing prevalence of rheumatological disease in the region, Uhunmwangho set out to certify his hospital in rheumatology and establish a rheumatology training program, now running for three years. Uhunmwangho now oversees five fellows in training — preparing the next generation of physicians to diagnose, treat, and manage the growing burden of rheumatological conditions in Nigeria and Africa more broadly.

When Uhunmwangho heard about the Stanford African Scholars in Global Health (SASH) program from a friend, he applied, eager to share his personal experience in Nigeria and learn  from Stanford experts in rheumatology. Among more than 400 applicants, Uhunmwangho was accepted as one of 24 scholars for the third SASH cohort to spend six weeks on campus during July and August, 2025. Uhunmwangho sought to learn about Stanford’s system for patient diagnosis, care coordination, and research in rheumatic disease, and how he might deploy this work in Nigeria.

During his time at Stanford, Uhunwangho cultivated relationships with his mentors and collaborators that are informing and inspiring global efforts to address the rising burden of rheumatological disease.

To guide him through the SASH program, Uhunmwangho was paired with Stanford Faculty Mentor Dr. Titilola Falasinnu, Assistant Professor of Medicine in Immunology and Rheumatology. A Nigerian by background, Fasasinnu is a researcher focused on pain management in autoimmune rheumatic diseases, specifically focusing on the public health impacts and disproportionate effects of rheumatic disease on women and racial minorities.

Falasinnu supported development of Uhunmwangho’s SASH project, introduced him to other Stanford rheumatology clinicians for additional mentorship, and together, they developed a survey to inform his research on improving outcomes for patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease. Now that Uhunmwangho is back in Nigeria, he meets with Falasinnu regularly for remote mentorship on his research and quality improvement work.

Reflecting on her work with Uhunmwangho, Falasinnu said: “Being able to collaborate on a project with impactful outcomes in rheumatology in Nigeria is a dream. I think I learned from him as much as he learned from me during this program.” 

Recognizing the need for more clinical exposure to rheumatology services, Falasinnu introduced Uhunmwangho to Dr. Neha Shah, Clinical Assistant Professor in Medicine and Director of the Integrative Rheumatology Clinic.

Uhunmwangho expressed gratitude for the opportunity to work with both a research and clinical mentor.” I feel incredibly fortunate to have both of them on my team,” he said. 

In the weeks that followed, Uhunmwanhgo and Shah learned from and inspired one another, cultivating a transformative friendship and global health partnership that continues now that Uhunmwangho has returned to Nigeria. As a result of the collaboration, Shah was inspired to become a Global Health Faculty Fellow with the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health. 

“There was an instant connection” with Shah, Uhunmwangho said. “I just kind of saw myself in her. She wanted to hear what the fellows have to say, to give them room to exercise their skills before she made corrections, [and] she was such a brilliant team player.” Shah was eager to learn from Uhunmwangho as well, he recalled, asking questions such as, “If you were back home in Nigeria, what would you have done with this kind of case?”

Shah emphasized how much she enjoyed working with and learning from Uhunmwangho. “Hearing his perspective on how the same patient would be treated in Nigeria, a resource-limited country, was very eye-opening,” she said, not just for her, but to her students, residents, and the fellows as well.

The two exchanged conversations on the state of rheumatology where Uhunmwangho worked in North Central Nigeria. “Every time, she would say, ‘How can we help you?’” Uhunmwangho recalled. “I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like that.”

“I really feel like I’m part of the global health community,” Uhunmwangho continued, reflecting on his time with Drs. Falasinnu and Shah. “It’s that connection: that you’re talking about something in your specialty, and there’s somebody miles and miles away, in another country, that you can share and work together to accomplish something with.”

When Uhunmwangho described the rheumatology training program he implemented, Shah promptly followed up with useful emails, links, and books from her time as the former Rheumatology Fellowship Program Director. Shah also connected Uhunmwangho with Dr. Audra Horomanski, the program’s current director, who invited Uhunmwangho’s fellows to join the department’s weekly didactics training sessions through Zoom. When he returned to Nigeria, with his fellows receiving virtual didactics training from Horomanski, Uhunmwango was able to travel to see more patients in his region in the time he would have spent teaching.

During one of these sessions, Uhunmwangho also gave a presentation to the division on his practice in Nigeria. “It was inspiring to us all,” Shah said. “As one of two rheumatologists covering six entire states, managing a fellowship program and training, talking to drug companies and negotiating with those companies sending their drugs to Nigeria… It was amazing to hear about the research that he’s doing and what his hopes and dreams are for the practice of rheumatology in his country.”

Before Uhunmwangho returned to Nigeria, Shah and Dr. Michele Barry, senior associate dean of global health at Stanford, helped set up a stipend to purchase an ultrasound for his home hospital. When technical difficulties prevented proper setup of the machine in Nigeria, Shah connected Uhunmwangho with options for a more compatible ultrasound machine.

Reflecting on his collaborations with Shah during the SASH program, Uhunmwangho shared: “Global health needs her. If you put this kind of person in global health, she will revolutionize the whole place. She just wants to help; I’ve never seen anybody who’s so desirous of helping other people.”

He added, “It’s really amazing what the SASH program has opened up for me. It’s really benefiting my practice, the training program, right now in such an amazing way.”

Likewise, Shah has been inspired to lean more into her global health interests through her work with Uhunmwangho. “I’m really wanting to get more involved, not just in Nigeria, but also in other areas of the world,” she said.

“My own ancestry comes from India, which has big metropolitan areas where there still aren’t proportionate numbers of rheumatologists for the size of the population, while more rural areas completely lack rheumatologic presence,” she said. “And so I’m really thinking about how we can expand rheumatologic reach and care.”

Shah is now taking training to learn about the Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) model, a platform providing remote support to primary care providers to reduce health disparities. Uhunmwangho has also enrolled his home hospital to be a part of this program.

The two also hope to apply for a GE Healthcare award to focus on maternal fetal health in Kenya, among other countries, with a hope to educate frontline workers about how to recognize rheumatology diseases such as lupus, Sjogren’s, and anti-phospholipid, Shah said.