From left to right, Florence Jaguga, Ashley Chory, Ken, Vallary, Josephine Aluoch, and Lonnie Embleton representing the Adolescent Health Initiative at the AMPATH Kenya Global Gathering.
Since 2015, Mount Sinai, through the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, has participated in the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH) Consortium, a collaboration between Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital and Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, and a number of North American academic medical centers.
In 2019, Mount Sinai became the lead Institution for the AMPATH Adolescent Health Initiative, which is housed at the Rafiki Centre for Excellence in Adolescent Health. In this role, Mount Sinai is responsible for the strategic development and systems strengthening of the care, research, education and community advocacy programs focused on adolescents.
Lonnie Embleton, PhD, MPH
Starting with the Rafiki Centre for Excellence, efforts are ongoing to expand the existing infrastructure to provide comprehensive and integrated care to all adolescents free-of-charge, regardless of HIV, housing status, or other characteristics. Comprehensive and integrated youth-friendly services encompasses providing holistic care across clinical specialties, including primary care, infectious disease, sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, and psychiatry, among others. Through the establishment of the framework of these goals, Mount Sinai will advocate towards improving the lives of adolescents in Kenya.
Working groups at AMPATH have been a vital and unique resource for research collaboration and activity since the program’s inception. These multi-disciplinary-focused groups were created to provide a bridge between clinical care and research, and to foster collaboration, particularly between researchers across the AMPATH consortium.
Florence Jaguga, MBChB, MMed
In July 2023, Mount Sinai formally took leadership of and formalized the AMPATH Adolescent Health Working Group, which includes representation from clinicians, researchers, public health and policy experts, and youth across the partnerships. The groups’ leadership follows AMPATH’s counterpart model, and is chaired by Lonnie Embleton, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor, and Florence Jaguga, MBChB, MMed, with Josephine Aluoch and Ashley Chory serving as secretaries. The group also includes peer-elected youth leaders, Vallary and Ken, who are responsible for providing feedback on program and research proposals, as well as other youth-specific contributions to the working group.
By centering on AMPATH’s tripartite mission of care, education, and research, Mount Sinai has shaped the working group’s strategic domains around similar principles. The overarching goal of the adolescent health initiative is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all adolescents in Kenya centered on delivering high-quality and standardized adolescent youth-friendly services.
The working groups’ purpose is to provide a forum for discussion of adolescent health programs and to identify gaps in existing resources; discussions span the complex topics and needs of adolescents globally. Additionally, a comprehensive research program, the establishment of health professional training, and the creation of long-term funding options can all contribute to enhancing adolescent health. Our aim is to develop, implement, and evaluate a robust set of standards, policies, educational, research, and fundraising activities over 10 years.
Sakshi Sawarkar, MPH is an Associate Researcher, Arnhold Institute for Global Health and Department of Global Health and Health System Design
Ashley Chory, MPH, is Senior Program Manager, Global Adolescent Health for the Kenya partnership at the Arnhold Institute for Global Health and for the Department of Global Health and Health System Design.